Tango of Mortality
by Stratusfear
Summary: Shiori finds out she is pregnant by her new husband, and decides she wants her son to find something else in his life besides just her. Maya and Kurama go to the same high school, but how receptive will they be to her plans? YYH Ayashi no Ceres CrossOver
1. Life's Blood

**Tango of Mortality**

**Chapter 1: Life's Blood**

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Ayashi no Ceres, and am not profiting off of this story in any way, shape, or form. Rated M for language, sexual situations, and self-inflicted fantasy violence.

"Congratulations, Mrs. Kazuyu. You're pregnant." The doctor said, lowering his clipboard so that she could see the smile on his face. Shiori's mind went blank for several moments.

"I….What?" She asked numbly, blinking slowly.

"You're going to have a baby, Mrs. Kazuyu. I realize that's not what you came in here for, but the urine tests showed us you're about two months pregnant." The doctor must have gotten this reaction from expecting women all the time, because despite her obvious shock the smile did not leave his face and his voice did not lose its cheerful tone.

"But….Aren't I too old?" She asked bluntly. The doctor laughed.

"Well, women don't tend to reach menopause until about 50 or 60 years old. Up until that point, you're perfectly capable of having children." The doctor informed.

"What about health risks?" Shiori asked, feeling butterflies in her stomach.

"Well, there are risks, but modern medicine has reduced them significantly. I'd have to say the greatest risk is to the child. How old is your husband?" The doctor asked, now taking on a more serious air.

"We're the same age." Shiori said.

"Both forty….well, it's a much better bet than having a child at fifty. There could still be potential problems, but as long as you come in for regular checkups we should be able to spot them before they get too serious. You see, when a couple older than thirty-five decide to have a child, they open themselves up to certain risks. The most severe would have to be Down's Syndrome or autism, both of which are more likely to occur in children born from parents who are above the age of thirty-five. Still, you and your husband are only five years over the risk stage, which isn't that bad." The doctor seemed uncertain how to continue. His patient had yet to make her attitudes about her pregnancy clear, and it went against his Hippocratic oath to try and sway her decision in any direction.

"How much time do I have until abortion isn't an option?" Shiori had to force the words out of her mouth. It wasn't that she disapproved of abortion; she understood why some women would make that choice. It was just not something that she, Shiori, would choose to do in her own life. She had been devastated for many reasons when her first husband died so early in their lives together, one of the most agonizing reasons being that she was now unable to give Shuichi the house full of siblings she had imagined for him. She had always worried whether that was the reason he was so alienated and introverted throughout his childhood, because he didn't have siblings to help him learn how to interact with other children. How strange that this should become an option just when she had deemed it unnecessary for her son's emotional health.

"You have three more weeks, Mrs. Kazuyu. Please come back to the clinic if you have any more questions. Well, other than your pregnancy, you're in perfect health, so I'll let you go now. I'm sure you'll want to discuss this with your husband as soon as possible." The doctor said, his cheer returning.

"Thank you very much, doctor."

(Later that night, Kazuyu family residence)

"You're pregnant?" Asked her husband, his eyes lighting up as he sat up straighter on the bed. "That's wonderful, dear!"

"You really feel that way? You're not just saying that because you think it's what I want to hear?" She watched Kazuyu carefully from where she sat at the nightstand of their bedroom, taking off her makeup. This was the reaction she had halfway expected from him, but she couldn't help but feel a little suspicious.

"You know, Shiori, for a long time since I asked you to marry me, I'd been thinking that I wanted you to have my child. But I never felt comfortable with telling you that, for some reason. But now that you are pregnant, I think that we should keep this child. Now, don't think you don't have a say in this as well, I'm just telling you how I feel. If you think the health risks are too great or we're too old to take care of a baby, abortion is still an option. It's entirely up to you, Shiori, I want you to do whatever makes you feel most comfortable." She could tell by his tone that he was speaking earnestly from the heart. She felt a few tears welling up in her eyes and hugged him to hide them.

"I want to have this child." She said, holding her husband close.

(The next morning, Hirobe family residence)

Miyako Hirobe, who had gone by the name Miyako Kitajima before her divorce, remarriage, and relocation to the Miyagi prefecture, paused on the steps of her house as she heard the phone ring. She had been just about to go up to her daughter's room. She was sure that what she'd been about to tell her daughter was so important that it ranked far above a phone call, but now as she listened to the ringer blare, she couldn't remember what she'd been about to say. After pausing for another moment, trying to collect her thoughts, she sighed and turned around, heading down the stairs to the kitchen where the phone sat. She was almost there when the answering machine clicked on. Miyako heaved a sigh of frustration and started to turn around in the direction of the stairs again.

"Miyako-chan? It's me, Shiori. Please pick up if you're there. I really must talk to you about something. You can call me at…." At the sound of the hauntingly familiar voice Miyako leapt the distance between herself and the phone and yanked it off the receiver.

"Shiori! I can't believe it's you, it's been so long!" Miyako was surprised to find she was almost sobbing. Perhaps it was the emotional attachment she had to the place where she'd lived with her first husband, the place where Shiori had befriended her. The place that had become such a dark wound in her daughter's heart.

"I've missed you, Miyako-chan. How have you been? Are you happy in Miyagi with that childhood sweetheart of yours? And how's Maya-chan doing?" Shiori fired off the questions one after the other. Miyako paused, feeling overwhelmed. She was unsure how to respond. Granted, Shiori wasn't the sort of person who others needed to sugarcoat their problems with, but Miyako didn't even know where to begin when it came to the incredible complex landscape of her family problems.

"I've been well. Ken and I are getting along very well. He's such a sweet and tolerant man, just as I remember him from when we were kids. He hasn't changed at all. Maya has tried so hard to be the perfect daughter for him, even though…." She trailed off. She was coming dangerously close to revealing too much.

"Yes, even though he's not her real father. Shuichi is the same way with my new husband." Mercifully, Shiori finished the sentence for her.

"You remarried? When?" Miyako asked excitedly as soon as Shiori's words sank in.

"Oh, just a year and a half ago, now. He's very good to me. I have a younger step-son now, too. His name is Shuichi, too, just like my son by my first husband! Isn't that funny? And my Shuichi, he's grown into such an exceptional young man. He's handsome, he's well-behaved, he's a brilliant student, and he always puts my happiness and well-being above everything else. All the girls at his school love him. He's going to Kokusai High School in Tokyo now. All the girls adore him – he has his own fan club, can you believe it? Although the love letters that keep pouring in do get tiresome. As far as I know, though, he's never had a girlfriend." Shiori prattled on happily, but Miyako was only halfway listening. Something Shiori had said several sentences ago nagged at her.

"Shiori. Did you say he was going to Kokusai High School in Tokyo?" She asked, gritting her teeth anxiously.

"Why, yes, he's going to Kokusai High School." Shiori replied cheerfully.

"My God." Miyako uttered, feeling faint, "Maya's just transferred there. She's leaving for Tokyo in two days."

"What? Really?" Shiori demanded. Her tone had become tinged with triumph. "That means they'd have run into each other whether I'd called you or not. But even so…..Miyako, I'll get straight to the point. I'm pregnant."

"Congratulations." Miyako said hollowly, taken aback. It was almost too much to take in all at once. Shiori was dropping too many bombshells on her too quickly. "But what does that have to do with…."

"Miyako, I…" Shiori hesitated and Miyako heard her take a deep breath on the other end of the line. "I'm worried about my son. He's well-behaved and an excellent student, but I know he's still isolated somehow, just as he's always been. And I'm worried about what's going to happen with this pregnancy. If anything happens to me….I want him to have a fiancée, Miyako, or at least a steady girlfriend. I haven't seen him show the slightest interest in a girl, ever, even despite the fact that his female classmates worship him. I'm worried he's devoting too much of himself to me. I want him to have a life of his own, both for his own sake and so he'll be able to take care of this baby if….if something goes wrong with my pregnancy."

"Why call me?" Miyako's knees buckled under her and she slowly sank to the floor. She was sure her voice must sound like the disembodied groan of a specter. She knew what Shiori wanted, and she knew even more what Maya's reaction would be. This was a disaster.

"You can't tell me you don't know." Shiori's voice had become intense, insistent; the voice of a desperate woman. "I know he loves her. He has to. Why else would he not take a girlfriend even once in all the years since she moved away? Who else could he possibly be waiting for?"


	2. Invisible Pain

**Tango of Mortality**

**Chapter 2: Invisible Pain**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Ayashi no Ceres. I'm not making any money off this, obviously. And don't bother trying to sue me because, as I've just said, I have no money.

"You're kidding." Maya stared across the room from where she sat at her desk to where her mother stood in the doorway. Miyako was leaning against the door, phone still clutched in her hand, hair out of place as if she'd just run several leagues; obviously distressed.

"I'm not. I was just on the phone with Shiori. Shuichi….that boy you've known since you were two years old….he's going to Kokusai high." Miyako's voice was quivering, barely over a murmur. Maya's eyes went blank and she dropped the pencil that was clutched between her fingers. It fell to the desktop with a resounding clack.

"There's more." She said sharply, casting a piercing gaze at her mother. It was this gaze, both searching and somehow accusatory, that was Maya's most striking feature. It made others uncomfortable, as if she were looking into their soul. "She wouldn't call just to tell you that. He would've started going there when he was fifteen or sixteen, I'm seventeen now, so since we're the same age, if she were calling just to brag about that she'd have done it when he was first accepted."

"Shiori's pregnant." Miyako informed, voice beginning to shake. "She's got some kind of scheme going. She wants to set up a future for Shuichi. It seems he's changed, he's not like he used to be. Or at least I wouldn't think he could be and still manage to have his own fanclub."

"His own fanclub?" Maya asked, raising an eyebrow. Her mother nodded. "No way. I don't believe it."

"It wouldn't be like Shiori to lie." Miyako said, hesitantly as if afraid of angering her daughter. Maya shot her mother another sharp glance, then her gaze softened and turned heart-rendingly sad.

"I don't think she's lying. She believes what she says." Maya said, her voice soft. "But even if it _looks_ like he's changed, he may just be _acting _like he's changed. On the inside, I bet he's still the same person he always was. And that makes me worry."

A long silence passed between mother and daughter

"Well, either way, it's not anything I should be sticking my nose into. I'd bail on Kokusai and try for another high school, but it's too late to cancel the transfer. But I'll have to avoid him like the plague once I get there. I don't care what Shiori's got planned, I won't be involved in it. Especially not if she's pregnant." Maya said this with finality, the tone of her voice signaling to her mother that her will was set in stone on this matter.

"Shiori knows you're at that school. Shuichi knows you're at that school. I don't know if you'll be able to fully avoid either of them. You're going there to find Aya Mikage, anyway." Miyako at first tried to sound neutral, but her tone quickly became pleading. "Maya, please, I don't know if the method you've chosen is the right one. What if filling yourself with pain and expressing nothing but negative emotions is somehow making your problem worse? Maybe you should try to humor Shiori, at least for a little while. At least until you know whether it will help or…."

"Are you out of your mind?!" Maya yelled, leaping to her feet and glaring at her mother, who shrank back. Maya crossed the space between them in two paces and stood before her mother, locking eyes with her. On the other side of those fiery brown eyes, her father's eyes, Miyako knew another consciousness was kept chained by nothing more than Maya's extreme effort. A consciousness that wished for nothing more than to inflict Maya's emotional pain on everyone who developed any attachment to her.

"But….Maya….How long can you go on like this? You don't eat, and you don't sleep more than three hours a given night, and…." Miyako's eyes wandered to the desk, where a razor sat, flipped open, its blade gleaming.

"I can go on forever." Maya said feverishly. "I can go on for as long as I'm alive. I _have_ to go on. For him. For Mamoru."

**Author's Note**: Huh. This is kind of a short chapter. The others will be longer though, I promise.


	3. Sayo

**Tango of Mortality**

**Chapter 3: Sayo**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Ayashi no Ceres. I DO own Sayo Kawagare and Takahara-sensei.

By the time she woke up late on the morning of her first day of school, Maya was starting to reconsider the bold statement she'd made to her mother. The trip from Miyagi to Tokyo, which really shouldn't have been that agonizing, was hell on her. It really shed light on how bad her physical condition was getting. Luckily she and her mother had been able to pass it off as a cold brought on by the stress of moving to a new place. Thus far she'd managed to hide her more bizarre….habits from her step-father, with help from her beleaguered mother and her perfect grades at school. She wanted things to stay that way – her mother having to deal with her problems was enough of a guilt trip as it was. It pissed her off because she clearly remembered Aya having run off to Tokyo all by herself with no problems whatsoever. The fact that she could not do the same was infuriating to Maya, because Aya was an object of hatred for her. She had difficulty saying why. Maybe it was because Aya had disappeared without a word and never been seen again, and based on an explanation from Yuuko – er, Yuuhi, she had run off to Tokyo to meet her boyfriend. This while a multi-national organization had it as their main goal to turn her into a labrat. Brilliant. Yuuhi and their other friend, that girl Chidori, had disappeared shortly after, presumably following after Aya. Maya had not had contact with any of them in over a year.

Until now. That was Maya's main reason for transferring to a Tokyo high school, really: to find Aya Mikage and wring some answers out of her. Shuichi's unplanned-for involvement notwithstanding.

But as she rushed out of her dorm, feeling physically drained and certain she was finally going to have that heart failure due to malnutrition that had been threatening to descend on her for some months now, she wondered what in hell she could possibly accomplish here. She was fifteen minutes late. That would result in a reprimand from whatever teacher she'd been allotted, and she prayed to any and all Gods that he or she wasn't a total bastard. If he was, Maya was going to make the transformation into hyper-brilliant delinquent _very_ quickly. Her dark thoughts were interrupted when she caught sight of the school gate and noticed something…..odd. It was fifteen minutes after class was supposed to start, yet there were girls in Kokusai's _seifuku_ crowded around the school gate. They were all crowded around a harassed-looking boy with long red hair, who was nonetheless smiling, albeit rather stiffly.

"Minamino-kun!"

"You're so late today, Minamino-kun!"

"Don't worry, we waited for you!"

Maya stared, completely transfixed by this bizarre sight. If someone had told her four years ago that Minamino would be greeted everyday at his high school by adoring girls, she'd have laughed herself to death. But on her first day at Kokusai, the impossible had become reality.

"I see you've met Shuichi Minamino, the school heartthrob." A rather indifferent-sounding young woman's voice materialized out of nowhere to Maya's left. Maya whipped around to look at her stalker.

"Although it's not realistic to call him ours. No matter what school he would've applied to, even an all boys' school, he'd have ended up the heartthrob." The young girl continued, straightening her thick black glasses with one willowy hand while the other brushed thoughtfully through her long black hair.

"Um…who…?" Maya began, then tried to put on the brakes. What was she doing? She didn't want to know who anybody was! She wanted them to stay as far away from her as possible, and _they_ needed to stay as far away from her as possible. Not that they had any way of knowing that.

"I'm Sayo Kawagare. Your roommate." The other girl said simply. The blunt utilitarianism of the statement threw Maya off for a moment, until her words sank in.

"You didn't wake me up this morning." Maya accused, eyes narrowing menacingly.

"I didn't think I should. You looked like you were halfway dead already. So I thought it would be better for you to sleep than sit through your first day of class, from which you would probably derive no education value anyway. You won't be able to learn anything until you've settled in." Sayo said, her tone unchanged, still looking at the crowd of students.

"Wait. If you woke up earlier than me, and left the dorm earlier than me, then why are you still standing out…..Oh." Maya immediately felt like a bitch. "You waited for me, even if you didn't wake me up. I'm sor…"

"Minamino!" A man with light-colored short hair that was stylishly mussed and large black-rimmed glasses was standing at the entrance to the school, obviously furious. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, probably fresh out of college, but he was obviously a teacher. "Disrupting class time again, and this time for the whole school, I see! And you girls, get to your classes right now!"

Disappointed groans immediately erupted in unison from the tribe of late schoolgirls, and they trudged away from the school gate and through the school entrance. Minamino was not so lucky, as he was immediately pulled aside by the teacher. Sayo moved to follow the other girls, and Maya followed suit. As they passed Minamino, she suddenly stopped. Maya was immediately filled with apprehension when she realized why: Maya was a new student and therefore had to be introduced at the front of the class and a desk assigned to her. Like it or not, she'd have to confront him, and while he was in a foul mood. Maya reflected that even after years of separation, her relationship with Shuichi showed alarming signs of falling back into the old routine: him constantly getting her in trouble.

"Takahara-sensei, I'm terribly sorry about my tardiness, but…." Minamino began, and Maya was surprised to hear he wasn't sneering. It sounded like a genuine apology.

"Don't give me that, Minamino! I know you take great pleasure in making a spectacle of yourself, and I'm sorry to inform you that I won't put up with it! Wakaba-sensei was too lenient with you last year, that's why you turned out this way! The teachers and the other faculty are the only stars around here, Minamino, and I'm going to make you realize that if it's the last thing I do!" Takahara-sensei was gripping Minamino by the arm as he berated him, something Maya found amazing because the Shuichi she had known would never have let the teacher lay a single finger on him, let alone quietly put up with that kind of man-handling.

"Takahara-sensei." Sayo inquired regally, her voice even but forceful. He rounded on her, looking her up and down in a disdainful manner.

"What are you still doing out here? Didn't I tell you to get to class?" He snapped, releasing Minamino.

"Takahara-sensei, this is a new student. She was late because of all the other girls crowding around the gate to greet Minamino. Since she's my roommate, that means she's in our class. She needs you to present her to the class and assign her a seat." Maya's eyes widened and she shot a quick glance at Sayo. Had she just used Shuichi's situation to gloss over their intentional tardiness, potentially getting him in even more trouble? Or was she doing this to distract Takahara-sensei and lessen Shuichi's load?

"Oh, right." With that Takahara-sensei turned her way and proceeded to look her over in a way she didn't like at all. She would've enjoyed telling him that the last teacher that looked at her like that had ended up in a coma. "Come this way."

Suddenly remembering his previous victim, he turned back to Minamino. "Well, Minamino, it looks like you've lost a potential convert. I doubt she'll be much taken with you now that you and your stupid showmanship have made her late to her first day of class."

With that Takahara-sensei strode into the school building, obviously expecting the three recalcitrant students to be hot at his heels. All three hesitated for a moment, then Minamino headed inside, looking somewhat relieved. Sayo moved to follow him, then stopped and turned back to Maya.

"Well, that's all the help you'll get from me. From now on, you're on your own. I can tell just by looking at you that you're on my level, and I don't want to end up like my boyfriend, Kaito, who's always losing out to Minamino. I'm the smartest girl in this school, and I intend to stay that way. Oh, and in case you're thinking the way Takahara-sensei was ogling you was just your imagination, it wasn't. He likes intellectual types, particularly young ones. He was after me before I asked Kaito to be my boyfriend."

With that Sayo disappeared into the building, leaving a dumbfounded Maya in her wake.


	4. Shuichi

**Tango of Mortality**

**Chapter 4: Shuichi**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Ayashi no Ceres, or any of the characters therein. Saemi Hachiyoru is my creation, however.

Shuichi was not a person who was used to being late. He was punctual to the point of being obsessive. Even when he had no deadline to meet, he made an effort to appear exactly when he deemed himself the most needed. That morning, however, had been an exception. In retrospect, he'd probably gotten a bit lax and careless given the relatively uninterrupted peace that had fallen on the three worlds upon Enki's inauguration as King of Demon World. He had to admit to himself that he had more reason than Kuwabara or even Yusuke to expect some kind of attacker to seek him out given his thousand years of thieving and manipulation. At any rate, he certainly hadn't foreseen what happened just as his alarm clock went off. His eyelids snapped open and he found himself staring into the slavering maw of some kind of spectral beast. It was white, glowing softly, and slightly transparent. But its fangs had felt real enough when he threw out an arm to block the bite that would have torn his throat out. He managed to dislodge its sharp fangs from his arm with the rose whip. The thing disappeared into thin air immediately after being repelled, as if it had lost its ability to remain corporeal. By the time he cleaned up the mess in his room and treated his wound, it was too late for him to even stop for breakfast.

The spectral white dog haunted his thoughts all the way to school, and he wondered whether he should skip today and instead keep a discreet watch over his family to make sure they weren't attacked. But he realized that wasn't an option. His teacher this year was not the sympathetic Wakaba-sensei. Now he had to deal with the despotic creature that was Takahara-sensei, who would most certainly call his mother if he were to not show up at school. He was damned if he didn't and damned if he did. So he decided to just go and have faith in Koenma to watch over his family, as he knew the Spirit World Prince's operatives continued to do to this day as a favor in return for his meritorious service.

What he saw as he approached the school gate made him feel like turning right back around and sticking with his first plan. Every girl in his class, as well as quite a few girls not in his class, were crowding the school gate. They cheered when they caught sight of him. He tried to suppress a cringe. A part of him had known high school would be no different than Meio Academy had been. A part of him had hoped it would be at least a little bit better. But not even in his most terrible nightmare had he imagined it would get _worse_. He guessed it was because they were older, but the girls at Kokusai high school were more bold, demanding and obsessed with him than the girls at Meio Academy had ever been. And he didn't even like thinking about the fact that several of these girls had come to Kokusai from Meio only because he had chosen this high school. The most terrifying of these cultish beings was Saemi Hachiyoru. She had been the captain of the (shudder) Romantic Soldier Fanclub at Meio, a school-sanctioned club made up exclusively of girls who dedicated themselves to admiring him. Far from finding this flattering, he found it skin-crawlingly creepy. And unfortunately Saemi had brought the club with her to Kokusai high school.

"You're so late today, Minamino-kun!" She squeaked, clinging to his arm and giving him her most dazzling smile. Saemi was pretty. Saemi knew she was pretty. By her estimation, she had been the prettiest girl at Meio Academy and she was the prettiest girl at Kokusai high school. And this, to her, meant that she had sole rights to Shuichi Minamino, who was the prettiest boy in Meio or in Kokusai high school. Needless to say, he found her possessive behavior offensive; he did not appreciate being seen as a mere object by anyone. The fact that these girls had the gall to think of this possessiveness and idol worship as love only served to prove their inexperience and naiveté

"But don't worry, we waited for you! You won't get in trouble alone." She dropped her voice to a mock whisper as if this were some sort of conspiracy they'd all planned ahead of time.

"You really shouldn't have done that." He said, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice and favoring her with a brittle smile of his own.

"Minamino!" Takahara-sensei bellowed. The girls let out a collective groan as they were ordered back to their classes. Shuichi tried to use the mass of girls as a shield against Takahara-sensei, but to no avail. He was gripped by the arm and hauled off to the side, an invasion of his space that made him clench his teeth in a silent hiss. He would've loved nothing more than to conjure his rose whip and cut that offending hand off. The man then proceeded to give him a lecture he must have heard a hundred times since the school year started. Takahara-sensei believed with all his heart and soul that Shuichi was what he had once appeared to be to Kaito: a playboy showoff who hid his gargantuan ego behind a mask of false humility and politeness. And Takahara-sensei had taken it upon himself to crush that ego.

"Takahara-sensei." It surprised him when he heard the voice of Kaito's girlfriend saying this. She had no reason to wait out here for him with that mob of girls, so what was she doing?

"What are you still doing out here? Didn't I tell you to get to class?" Takahara-sensei snapped, releasing his arm and rounding on her. Shuichi also turned to level what he hoped was a look of eternal gratitude at her.

"Takahara-sensei, this is a new student. She was late because of all the other girls crowding around the gate to greet Minamino. Since she's my roommate, that means she's in our class. She needs you to present her to the class and assign her a seat." Sayo explained in her oddly detached yet haughty voice. Shuichi's look of gratitude disappeared. This was the thing he didn't like about Sayo. Her motivations were even harder to read than Kaito's. What she'd said to Takahara-sensei could either get him off the hook or get him in even more trouble, and he had no idea which outcome Sayo had in mind. Add in the fact that both she and the new girl had likely gotten here late based on some mishap and were taking advantage of his bad luck to offset their own, and he started to feel rather used. He looked the new girl over briefly (Takahara-sensei looked much longer; he didn't even want to think about what that meant). Her hair was a rich, earthy brown, cropped short and parted to one side, her round eyes were roughly the same color as Keiko's, and she had a pretty, doll-like face. She was looking at Sayo with a somewhat scandalized expression. She had also caught on to what Sayo had just done, then. Takahara-sensei rushed them inside, sneering at Shuichi that he'd lost another potential admirer because he'd made her late. Shuichi would've liked to tell him thank god for that, and could he please tell him how to get rid of all the others too?

The mishap of the day over with, the class settled in, and the new girl was made to stand in front of the class while Takahara-sensei introduced her.

"Class, this is Maya Hirobe. She's just transferred here from Miyagi. Please try to help her adjust." Takahara-sensei said, his anger gone for the moment as he settled into one of the perfunctory duties of a teacher. He scanned the class until he saw a free seat next to Saemi. "You'll sit over there, next to Hachiyoru-san."

Maya? Her name was Maya? Given his past connection to that name, his interest was piqued. He watched more intently as she walked stiffly to her seat, trying to avoid making eye contact with anyone.

"Hi. I'm Saemi Hachiyoru. Just let me know if you need anything." Saemi said, smiling warmly. Shuichi could see her eyes darting from him to Maya, and it occurred to him that he was showing more interest in her than was good for either of them. He quickly turned back around to face the front, only to see that Takahara-sensei was glaring at him for some reason.

"Um…thank you?" He heard Maya respond. She sounded wary of Saemi's intentions, which proved what he'd suspected about her before: she was perceptive.

"Now, class, we'll begin today's lesson…." Takahara-sensei intoned warningly, and the entire class snapped to attention obediently. If Takahara-sensei had any reason to believe you weren't paying attention, that meant getting yelled at. Other teachers had complained several times already this year that his yelling disrupted the other classes, but until some kind of ultimatum from the principal came down, he would continue to ignore them. An ultimatum from the principal was unlikely as Shuichi had it on good authority (Wakaba-sensei's) that Takahara-sensei and the principal got along fabulously because the principal approved of Takahara's "innovative teaching methods." Shuichi had no idea what was so innovative about being a brutish despot, but that was for the school staff to decide. And with a few exceptions (Wakaba-sensei) it seemed to him the entire faculty was out to get him. Takahara-sensei hated him, the principal was on the lookout for whatever male student could surpass him, and the rest of the teachers had bought into the hype of him being some kind of shameless egotist. It had been like this in Meio to some extent, with teachers pressuring other boys (like Kaito) to beat him on tests. But it had never been this blatant, and much as he hated to admit it, he was starting to feel the pressure. And what happened at lunch that day proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

He'd seen Saemi in a huddle with her fellow club members, which should have clued him in that they were up to something. In spite of that, they managed to corner him in home room during lunch break. And given he was in the public eye right in the middle of his whole class, he couldn't just go ballistic on them like he really, really wanted to.

"Minamino-kun." Saemi addressed, flanked by a circle of girls that had been strategically positioned to cut off his escape routes. Damn.

"Yes, Hachiyoru-san?" He asked politely through gritted teeth.

"I've known you ever since junior high at Meio, and you've never had a girlfriend, ever. A lot of these girls didn't go to Meio, and so they want to know why you've never dated before." Saemi's tone was….he didn't know what to call it, but it gave him chills. She was trying to sound cute and charming, like a curious little girl, but the intensity in her eyes was scary. She had him trapped like a rat and she knew it. He knew he couldn't pause too long before answering. If he did it would be a sure sign that he was lying.

"I like someone who didn't go to Meio." It was true enough, actually. However, he had a suspicion this excuse was no good. If he'd had a girlfriend or showed any kind of interest in a member of the opposite sex at all, the frighteningly competent spies of the Romantic Soldier Fanclub would've found out about it by now. He'd had to go to endless trouble to dodge their prying eyes while he was still assisting Yusuke in his duties as Spirit Detective. In fact, he'd been surprised that no one had tried to label Botan, Keiko, or Shizuru as his girlfriend. Maybe it was just a random act of god that he'd apparently never been seen with one or all of them by any of his classmates. Sure enough, Saemi's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Well, who is she? What's her name?" Saemi practically purred. She had caught him in a lie. Well, a white lie, but a lie nonetheless. If he hesitated too long, the less sharp mob of fangirls would catch onto this as well. And then there would be trouble, trouble that would probably not go away for at least a month.

"Maya." It just came out. Oh. Damn. He'd finally done it. He had actually gone and pulled a Yusuke move and said the first thing that came to mind. He really needed to stop spending so much time with him; Yusuke was starting to rub off on him.

A horrified gasp rippled through the girls that were surrounding him.

"I _knew_ it!" Saemi practically snarled, stomping her foot, her previously sweet expression melting away into one of jealous rage. This reaction threw him for a loop until he saw her cast her seething glare in the direction of the seat next to hers. Then he remembered the name of the new student who had arrived this morning. He now realized the name "Maya" wasn't as random and unconnected to anyone in his class as he'd needed it to be.

Suddenly he noticed that the entire classroom had descended into a silence as absolute as that of the grave. He looked around the room to assess the damage. Kaito and Sayo, who had been sitting together eating, had stopped dead with their chopsticks poised over their food and were staring at him like he was insane. He couldn't guess at what kind of face he was making – probably somewhere between scared hamster and deer in headlights. The entire class was staring at him with looks of utter astonishment. Then he dared cast a glance at Maya Hirobe. What he saw scared him more than anything he had seen previously because it was not what he had expected. Maya was sitting in her seat gazing down at a textbook, apparently oblivious to everything that had just occurred.


	5. Force of Chaos

**Tango of Mortality**

**Chapter 5: Force of Chaos**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, Ayashi no Ceres, or any character that appears in either show. I don't even own Momoko, even though I came up with a name for her. She's that girl who was sitting next to Tasaka in Volume 7 of the YYH manga. Oh, but Wakaba-sensei is all mine.

**Author's Note:** When you see a line that is italicized, that means it's Maya's thoughts. Any other time I italicize something, it's just for emphasis (Saemi: "I _knew_ it!")

"Maya."

……………

_I didn't hear that._

Maya, contrary to what Shuichi thought, had been listening to his conversation with Saemi. She didn't know whether to pity him or feel amused. She hadn't even batted an eye when he said he liked someone who hadn't gone to his junior high. But when she heard him say the name "Maya", her brain stopped working and she went into shock. Then denial set in, the most instinctive response humans had to any situation they deemed life-threatening. And Maya definitely categorized this as life-threatening.

_That conversation didn't happen. I'm not even in class right now. No, I'm in the girls bathroom, sitting on the toilet, and I am completely alone. I am not sitting in my desk surrounded by students who just heard what….what…what **he** just blurted out. Wait. No. How could he not have said anything if I know what he just said? So, I'm not mad at him, because I didn't hear what he just said, because I'm not even here. Right? Right._

Maya's psychological spell didn't work long. The thick, crushing silence that coated the room made it seem like she was encased in meat puree. Eventually it became so intense that she thought she was going to suffocate. And then she started to feel the eerie sensation of innumerable eyes focused on her. The entire class was no longer staring at Shuichi. They were staring at _her_. Then she heard stomping feet. Lots of feet. A hand tapped her desk. She looked up, feeling as if her whole world was falling down around her, and saw that the entire class, headed by Saemi, had surrounded her desk. Saemi was smiling brightly, but somehow her expression conveyed nothing but sheer hatred.

"So, you've been seeing Minamino-kun for how long exactly?" Saemi inquired in her bone-chilling sweet curious voice, the same one she had been directing at Shuichi but a moment ago.

"When did you two meet?" A girl asked.

"Have you kissed yet?" Another girl.

"Of course they have, stupid! They've been going out since junior high, and probably since the first year of high school, too. That's, like, four years! I bet they've already had _sex_!"

That last one was a boy, who sounded somewhat triumphant. Maya guessed that with all the girls in school chasing Minamino, the other boys didn't have much chance of being treated as anything other than second-stringers by the girls here. But if Minamino was taken….

"Well? Aren't you going to answer me?" Saemi's fake politeness was obviously wearing thin; the sweetness in her tone was turning bitter. It was at this moment that Maya escalated to the third psychological reaction humans experience when faced with their inevitable death: anger. She shot out of her seat, practically climbing on her desk and causing the mob of students to back away. Her eyes darted around the room, hawk-like. She registered that Kaito and Sayo were sitting in their desks, in the exact same position Shuichi had seen them in a moment before. Their expressions had changed, however. Kaito was looking uncomfortable, as if he felt he should do something about this mess but wasn't sure what that something was. Sayo had somehow managed to fit her face into an expression that conveyed multiple emotions; she was looking intrigued, amused, and….was that pity or was she just being smug? Maya's eyes swept over the room, settling on the place Shuichi had been a few seconds before. He was nowhere to be found. Maya lunged away from her desk and strode toward the door. She must have been making a very scary face because everyone got out of her way in a hurry, even Saemi, who had been ready to strangle her before she went all berserker on them.

"That selfish little _coward_! He ran away! He's _always_ doing that!" Maya yelled, ripping open the sliding door and storming into the hallway.

(In another class, right down the hall)

"You _bastard_!"

This incredibly loud exclamation from a few feet outside the room silenced Wakaba Fujimori's entire class, who had been chatting animatedly as they ate their lunch. A loud bang followed soon after, the sound of someone being pushed against the wall very, very hard. She looked up from her desk, focusing her attention on the closed sliding door. She felt a tension in the air, and for some reason it felt familiar. In fact, that voice was familiar. A memory popped into her head, one she hadn't thought about in a long time. She remembered that back when she was teaching middle school she had had two students, a boy and a girl. They got along alright, even if their relationship was strange and unique in a way Wakaba had never managed to put her finger on. But then there were those times when the girl would get mad at the boy, and there would be a huge fight. Really, she remembered the girl most clearly. On the one hand, she was the most kind, generous, empathic person Wakaba had ever met. But there were those times when someone actually did manage to make her mad. And this someone was always that boy. And in those instances, those two were like…..

"A force of chaos." Wakaba mumbled, beginning to rise from her seat.

"What did you say, Wakaba-sensei?" A girl named Momoko asked, looking curiously from her to the door. She had encouraged her students to call her by her first name instead of her last, a practice that had left a lasting impression ever since her days of teaching middle school.

"Oh, nothing. I'd better go see what's going on outside." She said absently, pushing past her student and opening the sliding door. The sight that greeted her was, indeed, chaotic. An entire class worth of students was crammed into the hallway, almost blocking the door. They were all turned in the same direction, which at least gave her an idea of how to break it up.

"Go back to your classes! What are you doing out in the hallway?" She demanded, beginning to push her way through the students. Seeing the arrival of a teacher and the potential to get in trouble should have caused then to scatter, but they stood their ground, doing no more than half-heartedly clearing a path for her. When she reached the center of their attention she saw why. Shuichi Minamino was involved. He was currently pinned against the wall very roughly by a young girl with short brown hair. Wakaba-sensei noticed her hair first because it was being yanked on by another girl, who was apparently trying to pull her off Minamino. The result was the most ridiculous three-way human pileup Wakaba-sensei had ever seen. And it said a lot about the world of teaching that this was not the _only_ three-way human pileup she had ever seen.

"You bastard! You horrible bastard! _Shrivel up and die,_ _devil child_!" The girl with the short hair yelled, punching Minamino in the back of the head while she resisted the yanking fingers of the girl behind her.

"Get off of him, you succubus!" Shrieked the other girl, pulling harder.

"Please, please stop doing that. It hurts." A beleaguered-sounding Minamino pleaded as he was pummeled multiple times by the girl's petite fist.

Wakaba-sensei was distracted from this hilarity when she heard the unpleasant sound of Takahara-sensei's yelling voice and the "thap" sound of him hitting students with an instruction manual to compel them to get out of his way. He materialized from the crowd right across from her and was momentarily rendered speechless by the crazy sight. It was a sign of his total lack of any sense of humor that he just looked shocked. She herself was going to superhuman lengths to suppress a grin and was worried that if she opened her mouth to speak she'd start laughing and be unable to stop. Takahara-sensei, finally over his shock, jumped into the fray and broke the threesome apart, although he had to hit the two girls with his manual several times before they stopped harassing each other. Minamino removed himself from the wall and went to stand with his back against several students, obviously wary of being caught with a hard surface to his back again. He looked, to match the perfect phrase with the perfect situation, like a whipped dog.

"Okay, what happened here?" Takahara-sensei directed the question to no one in particular, something Wakaba-sensei could have told him was a bad idea. High school students and grade school kids didn't act all that different when involved in these kinds of skirmishes. Directing a question that was like an adult version of "Who started it" at all three of them was a one-way ticket to another fight.

"He said he liked me! In front of the _entire class_!" The short-haired girl wailed at maximum volume, pointing an accusing finger at Minamino, who shrank back. Then she stopped and an expression of horror replaced the one of livid anger. Wakaba-sensei wondered what was wrong until she realized that half the school or more was out in the halls by now, and as she was obviously upset that Minamino had made a public spectacle of her, it meant that she had just compounded her problem.

"You _do_ realize you just dug your own grave, don't you?" Asked a girl with long, silky black hair who was standing on the sidelines, her voice awash with amusement.

"Shut up, Sayo!" The girl snapped, rounding on her.

"No, _you_ shut up! How dare you assault Minamino-kun like that, you bitch!" The girl who had been pulling her hair snarled. The short-haired girl whirled in the direction of her adversary and the two girls glared at each other. Wakaba-sensei was surprised they didn't summon lightning bolts and gale force winds. The second fight that Takahara-sensei had unwittingly instigated was about to start unless something was done, and quickly.

"Okay. That does it. Principal's office. Now." Wakaba-sensei interjected, stepping between the two girls.

"Wakaba-sensei, I fail to see why you need to get involved. This was a fight between students in my class." Takahara-sensei said, a dangerous edge in his voice. When it came to his students, the man was controlling to the point of it being creepy. Even though some of the students in his home room had been in her class last year, he made a point of impeding any efforts they made to keep in contact with her. She supposed his young age made him insecure and he felt he had to have something to hold over the other teachers.

"Well, yes, Takahara-sensei, but this fight between students in your class has somehow dragged the whole school into it. Therefore, the principal's office is the place to go." She said, trying to keep her tone light. Takahara-sensei looked about to object, but then an expression of wicked glee briefly flashed across his features. He must have realized that if this went all the way to the principal, Minamino stood to get in even more trouble than he already was.

"Well, alright then. You hear, Minamino? You go too." Takahara-sensei growled at Minamino, who'd been trying to slink away. Minamino's face fell and he looked for all the world like he was going to his own execution. She stood between the two girls to prevent any further conflict, and with Minamino taking up the rear they made their way toward the principal's office.

(Meanwhile, in Wakaba-sensei's classroom)

A girl with short, light hair that had been stylishly curled watched the three trouble makers disappear down the hall with Wakaba-sensei. She ducked her head back in the door and turned her slanted, catlike eyes to a boy who was leaning with his back against the windows.

"You'll never believe what I just saw, Tasaka." She said gleefully.

"Geez, Momoko, you're such a rumor-monger. Can't you give it a rest?" Tasaka grumbled, rolling his eyes. He was tall and lean, a soccer player, with tussled hair that was buzzed at the sides.

"Hmph! I a might be a rumor-monger but don't you dare call me a gossip. You know I like to keep on top of things just for myself, not cause I wanna have dirt on anybody. Anyway, you'll be singing a different tune when you hear what I saw." She huffed, putting her hands on her hips and glaring at him.

"Oh, yeah, sure. Like what you saw was really something I'd be interested in." He drawled.

"That girl that who was pinning Minamino to the wall and wailing on him? She called him Devil Child." Momoko said smugly.

"What? But we're the only ones in this school who went to middle school with him, that I know of. Heck, forget that. The only people who'd know about that Devil Child stuff are people who went to kindergarten with him, who grew up in the same _neighborhood_. Who's this girl that she'd know about that?" Tasaka said, finally getting interested.

"Her name's Maya Hirobe, if you want to know." Said a voice. They both turned back to the door to see Sayo standing there, flanked by Kaito.

"Maya?" Tasaka asked, sounding shocked.

"You _do_ know what this means, don't you?" Momoko asked, turning to Tasaka, her expression one of sheer wicked glee. "It means the gang's back together. Minamino can't pretend not to recognize us anymore. Not if Maya's here. And that means things are going to get pretty interesting around this stuffy old place."


	6. Devil Child

**Tango of Mortality**

**Chapter 6: Devil Child**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Ayashi no Ceres or any of the characters that appear therein.

"So, this was a fight between only three students, correct?" Principal Daitojiri asked, his already rolly-polly figure swelling with satisfaction as he looked at Shuichi Minamino. The boy sat at eye level with the principal, seated between two girls. This had been arranged by Wakaba-sensei, who figured it would be prudent to put a barrier between Maya and Saemi. Not that Maya seemed to have any qualms about stomping right over Minamino to get at the other girl, but Wakaba-sensei figured they'd deal with that eventuality when they came to it.

"Yes, Principal Daitojiri." Wakaba-sensei said mildly from where she leaned against the door of his office. All the chairs were taken up by the three students, so she'd had to stand. She wondered if her own class was behaving. This whole thing had come about because Takahara-sensei had stepped out to go to the bathroom. And she was absent from her class as well. She had faith in them, but Momoko was known to be able to cause a disaster with only a few words…

"And yet it came to involve almost the entire school. Because Minamino was involved." The Principal said, sounding pleased as punch. Principal Daitojiri did not like Minamino. He did not like the idea of school heartthrobs at all, in fact. He considered such a concept a blemish upon the stainless pillar that was the great Japanese school system. It was vexing to him, then, that Minamino, who was the bodily representation of such a blemish in the very school to which he was the guiding light, was so scrupulously well-behaved. He wasn't just good-looking, he was intelligent and his manners were impeccable in the best and worst of circumstances. He was a credit to Kokusai high school and bolstered the school's reputation. And Principal Daitojiri hated that, for reasons he wasn't even quite sure he understood. Minamino was an anomaly, a sin against the natural way of things. And so, through fair means or foul, he had to be made to fall from grace. Which had somehow just happened without the principal even needing to do anything. Miracles really did happen, it seemed.

"Hm. Wakaba-sensei, these three students are from Takahara-sensei's class. So why are you overseeing these proceedings?" The principal asked, casting an imploring glance at the woman.

"Takahara-sensei did break up the fight, but I witnessed more of it. As such, I figured it would be best if I went with them. Also, Takahara-sensei seemed like the most able to keep the entire school from following us." Wakaba-sensei was trying to hide a smirk behind her hand. She knew perfectly well why Principal Daitojiri wanted Takahara-sensei here. As Principal, he had to maintain a certain image; he could only put subtle pressure on Minamino. Takahara-sensei was free to harass the boy all he wanted; combining the two would have produced a force of subjugation that even Minamino might have folded under. She couldn't help but find Minamino's misfortunes amusing though she didn't bear any grudge against the kid and actually kind of liked him; she supposed it was payback for past agonies.

"Hm. Fair enough. Please tell me everything that you saw, Wakaba-sensei." The Principal amended in his mild tone, although inside he felt some suspicion against Wakaba-sensei. She was a good teacher, and though her class's grades were not exceptional they were steady. Her noted sympathy for Minamino, however, would not do in this situation. Not now that he finally had something on the boy. Wakaba-sensei then related, in as even a tone as possible, what she had seen. She noticed with some relief that the Principal almost chuckled at several parts. At least he had a sense of humor, although she wondered if he'd find it as amusing if anyone other than Minamino had caused this kind of furor.

"Alright then. So this fight started because Minamino expressed romantic interest in you with the entire class as a witness, correct?" The Principal asked, leveling his peaceful gaze at Maya.

"Sir, that's not quite what happened…" Minamino began, only to fall silent as the Principal gave him a look that was lacking the neutrality he favored Maya with.

"I wasn't addressing you, Minamino." The Principal said gravely.

"Yes, sir." Minamino said, sinking back in his seat.

"Well?" The Principal once again addressed Maya, raising a hand to her palm-up in entreaty.

"Hachiyoru-san was the one who started all this, actually." Maya began, peering past Minamino to glare at the other girl who returned the vexation in kind. The Principal's eyebrows shot up.

"That surprises me. We've never had any trouble from Hachiyoru-san before, quite the opposite. She helps keep the other girls in line, in fact." The Principal said.

_That's because she is a crazy cult leader who thinks she'll absolutely die if she doesn't know who is talking with me or doing anything I'm involved with every single second. So, of course she keeps a tight leash on the other girls, but you're crazy if you think it's got anything to do with adhering to the school rules._ Minamino thought silently, gritting his teeth in frustration because he knew anything he said to the principal would be met with the same response as before. He was smart enough to realize his side of the story was being purposefully ignored.

"Oh, I saw how she keeps them in line. She had them surround Minamino and drill him about his love life." Maya said bitterly. Minamino shot a surprised glance at her. That was what he had wanted to say before. His look of surprise softened into one of gooey gratitude. Maya glared daggers at him and he went back to looking down at his feet. He'd better be careful where he looked while he was in here; he could end up blind.

"The other girls and I were just curious. We wanted to know more about him, you know, what he does when he's not at school." Saemi said, her eyes widening innocently as she addressed the principal. "We asked him whether he liked a girl or not, and he said he liked someone that hadn't gone to his junior high. We asked him what her name was, and he said Maya."

"I see. And this upset you, Hirobe, so much so that you felt the need to chase him into the hallway and tackle him into a wall, wherein you proceeded to punch him repeatedly." The Principal rattled off the events in a disinterested tone, once again turning his eyes to Hirobe.

"No, sir. I did not forcibly chase him out of the room, he ran out of the room the second he said my name and the whole class's attention was on me. Then I followed him out of the room and did everything you just described." Maya gritted out angrily. She wanted to make sure everyone knew without a doubt that Minamino had attempted to use her as a backdoor out of an uncomfortable social situation. In other words, as a convenience item.

"Hm. And then Hachiyoru chased after you and started pulling your hair to get you off Minamino. And according to Wakaba-sensei, Hirobe, you said and I quote, "You bastard, you horrible bastard, shrivel up and die, devil child." Would you mind telling me exactly what you meant by that last part?" The Principal asked, regarding Maya curiously. Maya started to answer, but then stopped. She faltered, a look of confusion crossing her features, and her anger evaporated.

"I…I don't know. I remember the 'you horrible bastard part', but devil child? I said that? I don't know what I meant by that. I don't even remember saying it." Maya said finally, sounding bewildered and looking completely floored. Wakaba-sensei frowned where she stood at the door. She didn't think Maya was lying about not remembering, which made this even more odd than anything else that had happened today.

"I heard her say it." Hachiyoru said eagerly, hoping Maya would be charged with lying to the principal.

"She did say it." Minamino offered, leaning away from Maya as if he expected her to start hitting him again. The room fell into a prolonged silence as everyone waited for someone to explain this mystery.

"Well, I could put my own two cents in about that, Principal Daitojiri, if you'd let me." Wakaba-sensei offered, raising a hand. "I'm not sure if it's related, but I do remember a certain incident that occurred while I was teaching middle school…"

(Eight years earlier, in a Japanese grade school)

Wakaba-sensei's first experiences as a teacher had been rough. She had been saddled with a class full of varied and bizarre personalities before she had learned the balancing act of how to cope with them (and that this was actually the most enjoyable part of the job). The most irregular and therefore unbearable of these students was a boy named Shuichi Minamino. She did not have the words to describe him, really. He was like an adult who had been stuck in a child's body. An extremely intelligent, perceptive, shrewd, vindictive adult. An adult who knew how to push people's buttons, who knew exactly what to say to cut someone straight to the proverbial bone. She's been putting up with him for two years now, and she knew what he was capable of. So it should have come as no surprise to her that on the one day when she really could have used some sympathy, he decided to be worse than he had ever been before.

She had just had a miscarriage, and her doctor had warned her that she might not be able to have any more children. The first thing her husband had done when she'd come home and tearfully told him the bad news was go out and get drunk, then returned at 2:00 AM and break an empty sake bottle over her shoulder and call her a "barren hag" before passing out cold at the foot of their bed. And then she had come into class the very next day completely at her wits end. The entire class suffered quietly through her frazzled attempts to teach them, being unusually well-behaved actually, because they had all been warned about her miscarriage by…someone. Wakaba-sensei had no way of knowing who had got the word around – there were too many likely candidates. Things thus remained stable and she managed to keep from having a nervous breakdown until halfway through the day when she directed a particularly disjointed question at Minamino regarding the material they were studying. He kept his eyes on his textbook and in an utterly bored, contemptuous tone of voice launched off into the most offensive soliloquy she had heard before or since

"You know, you should have just stayed on maternity leave for good, because you're of no use whatsoever, as an educator _or _a woman. It's no wonder you had a miscarriage – you must be as weak physically as you are weak-willed. It'll be a good thing if you never have any more kids, either. There are too many worthless idiots in this world as it is, and we really don't need you raising any more of them. Now why don't you stop wasting our time and dismiss us, then go home and never come back?"

For a few moments, there was silence. Then she burst into tears and collapsed into a sobbing heap on the floor. The class erupted into scandalized gasps, groans, and whispers. They were well aware of Minamino's acerbic attitude, but even they hadn't expected him to do something this extreme. The nervous murmuring gradually fell silent as a tense aura began to slowly pervade the room. The class was overcome with a sensation of extreme uneasiness, and they looked around warily for the source. They locked onto a girl who sat a few seats behind Minamino. She was gripping the sides of her desk so tight the supports were groaning, and her eyes were hidden by her bangs as she glared down at nothing. Those sitting near her sensed the approaching storm and started to get up.

"Why you…SHUICHI!"

This ear-splitting shriek from the girl prompted the entire class to bolt up from their seats and back up against the walls away from the fray. Wakaba-sensei looked up in time to see Shuichi's head shoot up from the textbook and his eyes widen in fear. He began to slowly turn his head to look behind him, rising as he did so. He was not fast enough to avoid the desk that came flying at him.

"Shrivel up and die, devil child!"

(Present time, Principal Daitojiri's office)

"…Then she threw her chair at him along with the desk, which hit me and gave me a busted lip, by the way, because Minamino had dodged and bolted out the door by then. She was pretty strong for a 10 year old. I don't think she even noticed the number she did on my lip, she was so focused on killing Minamino. Well, she chased him through the whole school screaming at him the whole time. He tried to hide several times and wait for the faculty to restrain her, but nobody _could_ restrain her. She'd fight it out with the faculty and then start hunting for him again, and she always found him. The whole thing lasted about an hour, and the last showdown occurred when she'd trapped him at the school pool. Then she gave him an upper palm to the chin – some kind of aikido move – and he went splat right into the pool. She drove him into the sea, so to speak. Then she jumped in and dragged him back on land and started shaking him by the scruff of his shirt. And then he started laughing. And then she started laughing. And she told him to just never do it again, and that was the end of it. She didn't even get any punishment for wailing on him like that – quite frankly almost everyone in the school had been praying for something like that to happen to him. If he's an angel now, he was an absolute monster back then. Anyway, the girl's name was Maya Kitajima. Same first name, but…"

"Kitajima is my father's surname, ma'am." Maya interjected very quietly, her voice trembling. All trace of anger was gone; something had completely subdued her, but what was anyone's guess. Shuichi's head shot up and he looked over at her in astonishment. She was _that_ Maya?

"Ah, so it is you. It's been a long time. I see you're still dispensing punishment to Minamino." Wakaba-sensei broke out into a warm smile. The fact that they weren't in her class made her even happier. They were a lot easier to like when you weren't the one who had to deal with them. That was Takahara-sensei's watch, and good luck to him, he was going to need it.

"It's strange, I didn't have any memory of that until you told the story, then it all came back. But I still don't remember exactly why I called him devil child." Maya said hollowly, staring down at the floor.

"Well, regardless, you've all disrupted the entire school day, and you'll all need to be punished. You'll all stay behind and clean all the classrooms after school today. As for you, Hirobe, only your first day of school and already you're breaking rules. I suppose I can overlook it if I can have your word you'll try to curb Minamino from now on, eh?" The Principal sounded amused, but Maya looked like the prospect of being Minamino's chaperone made her sick to her stomach.

"Principal Daitojiri, I think some volunteers from my class should stay behind with them after school, both to make sure they actually do the cleaning and so no more fighting breaks out." Wakaba-sensei suggested. She didn't want Shuichi's groupies from Takahara-sensei's class staying behind and ganging up on Maya, and she knew just the two students who could prevent it.

"Very well. Dismissed." The Principal said, leaning back in his chair and beginning to plan his next move. The three students got up, bowed, and walked out the door. They followed Wakaba-sensei to her class, which had been forced into an impromptu study hall due to their teacher's absence. After bidding farewell to the three students, she stepped back into her classroom. Everyone immediately rose.

"Wakaba-sensei, what happened?"

"Did you really go to the Principal's office with Minamino and those two girls?"

"What did the Principal decide?"

She put up a hand and the class fell silent.

"Minamino, Hachiyoru, and Hirobe will stay after call today and clean _all_ the classrooms, which means the students originally assigned to do it get the night off."

The students laughed and the ones who's been up to clean the classroom tonight cheered. She put up her hand again and the class settled down.

"However, I'll need to choose a few of you to watch over them and make sure no more trouble starts up. Momoko, Tasaka, it's your office."

Momoko's face split into a grin that would have looked right at home on a weasel, while Tasaka groaned and slapped a hand to his forehead.

"See, what did I tell you?" Momoko gloated, turning to look at Tasaka.

"No, not this again, I had more than enough of humanizing Minamino in grade school, I don't want him taking over my whole high school experience, too!" Tasaka growled, slumping back in his chair.

Meanwhile, Wakaba-sensei lifted her hand to her mouth to cover a grin. Who better to look after two childhood friends than two childhood friends of those childhood friends? She just hoped she wasn't opening Pandora's box by doing this. But, then again, even if she was, who'd be here to make a fuss over it?


	7. Clutter

**Tango of Mortality**

**Chapter 7: Clutter**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Ayashi no Ceres or any of the characters that appear therein.

Staring at her.

She could feel his eyes on her. Only when he thought she wouldn't notice. When he thought he could get away with it. They were an hour into the cleaning job, and thus far six classrooms had been accounted for. Only the entire school left to go. Yay. Momoko had made the wise decision to keep the three of them as physically far apart as possible, which kept Saemi at a safe distance at least. Every solution creates its own problem, however. The wide space between them gave Minamino ample opportunity to watch her from afar, which he was doing a lot of. This had the not-unexpected effect of driving her crazy. On top of that Saemi noticed that Minamino was watching her, and if it was driving Maya crazy, she could just imagine how the other girl felt about it. Saemi had just heard her confess to having known Minamino since grade school, so that gave the girl at least some explanation as to why he was risking life and limb to observe this potentially deadly predator (or succubus as Saemi had so flatteringly called her) in her natural habitat. However, since Maya had practically brained him earlier that day, it didn't make any sense that he should be doing anything other than avoiding any and all contact with her. And what was he doing? Why, the exact opposite, of course. This, Maya surmised, was very worrying to Saemi. As for Minamino thumbing his nose at the very real possibility that he might suffer death-by-cleaning-utensils if he kept this staring thing up, somehow this behavior struck Maya as oddly familiar. It was the same sense of déjà vu she'd experienced when she realized Minamino had run off and left her to deal with the social disaster zone he'd created.

She looked up in Minamino's direction. Damn. She'd been a half-second too late. He appeared to have his eyes on the blackboard he was cleaning. She was mopping and Saemi was doing the windows. Momoko and Tasaka were doing absolutely nothing, which was their prerogative since it's not this was their punishment.

_Wait for it..._

_Wait for it…_

_Now!_

She looked up in Minamino's direction and they locked eyes. Gotcha.

"What is with the staring, Minamino? You've been doing it in every classroom we've been in and it's creeping me out!" She demanded, pointing the mop at him threateningly.

"I wasn't staring at you." Minamino said, sounding one hundred percent confident in his answer. People always sounded like that when they were lying through their teeth.

"You were too staring at her. I've been sitting here watching you do it, Minamino." Momoko interjected. Busted.

"He said he wasn't staring at you, so he wasn't staring at you." Saemi said, coming to his defense even though she knew he was lying. This made Maya feel sorry for her for some reason, perhaps because it reminded her of a time not so long ago when she would've done anything for Mamoru - who, in retrospect, really hadn't been worth any of it.

"Oh please, Saemi. You've been standing over there watching him like a hawk, like you didn't notice him giving her the once-over about ten times. It's not like you have to back Minamino up on _everything_ just cause you're obsessed with him." Tasaka drawled, rolling his eyes.

"And anyway, it's no surprise he can't get her off his mind." Momoko said. She sounded like she was just thinking out loud, but Maya got the feeling she was really trying to stick the knife into Saemi.

"What? Why? What do you mean by that?" Saemi demanded, sounding as if her life depended on the answer.

"Well, Shuichi belongs to Maya. That's the way it's always been." Momoko said matter-of-factly, examining her perfectly manicured nails.

"Oh, really? How interesting." An austere voice drifted from the door. They all looked up to see Sayo leaning in the doorway, flanked by Kaito.

"I couldn't resist the chance to witness your humiliation with my own eyes, Minamino. I wasn't quite fast enough to see what happened to you in the hallway – though I hear it was quite mortifying – so I figured this was the next best thing." Kaito said by way of explanation. He sounded oddly apologetic though.

"Well, Sayo was apparently fast enough." Maya pointed out, glowering at the other girl.

"What can I say? I'm limber. I do gymnastics in my off hours." Sayo said in a flippant tone, tossing her head back dismissively.

"Then why aren't you off doing gymnastics now?" Maya snapped.

"This is more interesting." Sayo said simply, showing no signs of being offended by Maya's none-too-subtle suggestion that she take a hike. "So, about Minamino being Hirobe's property?"

"More like her own personal plague of locusts." Tasaka muttered just loud enough to be audible to everyone but not loud enough to get him in the line of fire.

"Oh, yeah, that." Momoko said, not looking up and still making an effort to sound totally disinterested. It suddenly struck Maya that though Momoko and Sayo obviously had very different personalities, at the same time they were on the same wavelength somehow. Nor was one necessarily more intelligent than the other – they just had radically different ways of using that intelligence. She sensed a similarity between Momoko and Saemi as well, in both girls' apparent desire to control the events and people around them, but unlike with Sayo and Momoko, in this case the two girls came into conflict. Maya wondered how long Momoko had been waiting to get some kind of leverage over Saemi. Now that she obviously had it, it seemed like she was trying to make it last for as long as possible.

"Well, what about it?" Saemi demanded tensely; she had completely forgotten about the windows she was supposed to be cleaning. Maya could feel her eyes rolling skyward.

"We are going to be here all night at this rate! Can we please just forget that Minamino even exists for a few hours and finish with the cleaning?" She said to everyone and no one, angrily returning to her mopping.

"First thing you gotta realize is that Shuichi and Maya have known each other since they were, like, newborns. Their birthdays are only a week apart. Maya's mom and dad were high school friends of Shuichi's mom, so the two families naturally had a lot to do with each other. And that's how the unbreakable bond got started. They went to the same school until Maya moved away when she was 13. And it was always an undisputed fact among all the students that Shuichi was Maya's to do with as she pleased." Momoko said, settling into her story with the practiced air of an expert gossip. Maya's mopping gradually slowed to a near standstill as the familiarity of Momoko's words sank in. Hazy memories of her childhood drifted in and out of focus as she tried to mentally verify Momoko's words. Somehow she just couldn't organize her thoughts enough to confirm or deny it, which filled her with a maddening frustration.

"You know, I even used to like Minamino." Momoko sighed, propping her chin on the palm of her hand.

"What? You?" Saemi asked incredulously, bristling like a hostile alley cat.

"Yeah. He used to be a real trouble maker, you know, the tall dark and offensive type, and I've always had a thing for guys like that. I even got in Maya's face for a while, you know, trying to turn the other girls against her so I could get her away from Minamino. But it was no use. For him, no other girl existed in the world except Maya, she was the only one he'd let in. If you wanted to get to Minamino, you had to do it with her help. Not that she wasn't eager to help, but, well…for what I wanted it wouldn't have done any good. But I don't like him like that anymore." Momoko shrugged, tossing her head back.

"Why not?" Asked Saemi in a tone that indicated she didn't believe that for a second.

"Because he's had his fangs pulled. He's got no backbone anymore. He's turned into a…a wet noodle, I guess. If he were anything like he was in the old days you and your gal pals wouldn't want anything to do with him, because he'd have no bones about telling you that he wants nothing to do with _you_." Momoko said. Saemi tensed at the implication that she and the rest of the fanclub had no value to Minamino, but faltered when she realized she had nothing concrete to refute it with.

"Hang on a minute, Momoko. I mean, I agree when you say if he was anything like he was back then nobody would be swooning over him, but other than that you're making this sound way too lovey-dovey, which is definitely not how I remember it. What I remember is Minamino acting like a total bastard to everyone and Maya having to clean up after all the messes he made. You know, like right now. Only back then she actually did it willingly, and god only knows why that was. I mean, she was always at his side every second of the day, and all he ever did was blow her off." Tasaka finally felt it necessary to intervene, much as he didn't want to. He didn't want Momoko making Minamino sound like some knight on a white horse, which she would just to get under Saemi's skin.

"She did it cause she loves him." Momoko chirped. This statement had nothing to do with either Maya or Shuichi and everything to do with doing the verbal equivalent of torturing Saemi with red-hot pokers.

This was immediately followed by the sound of a horrified gasp and a mop clattering to the floor.

"I do _not…love…him_." Maya grated out, radiating fury.

"You know, when girls say it like that it means they actually do." Sayo pointed out. The death glare Maya threw her way didn't so much as muss her hair.

"Well, Minamino? Do _you_ love _her_?" Saemi rounded on him, brimming with the righteous indignation of some jilted lover who just found out her boyfriend was cheating on her.

Minamino was the spitting image of a cornered animal for the second time that day, something Maya would have found satisfying if she hadn't been so pissed off. He couldn't for the life of him come up with an out for this situation. Though the two situations had nothing to do with each other he was suddenly reminded of that time he had been cornered by that SDF demon hunter in Spirit World, completely out of tricks with no idea what his next move would be, or even if he had a move to make. And, just like that time, he was silently berating himself for not planning for a scenario he should have anticipated a long time ago.

"Um…I don't know?" That was it. He was done for. He might as well plant the Deadly Vetch seed in himself. Answering a question with a statement that sounded like another question was a sign of lack of conviction no matter if you were human, demon, or somewhere in between. And, just like a pack of hungry demons that sense weakness in their prey, these people were going to eat him alive.

The room was silent for a split second as the people in it mulled over this most irregular of responses from Minamino.

"Minamino answering a question with 'I don't know'? This is totally unheard of, if I'm not mistaken. All Minamino knows how to give are right answers. Guess he didn't know how to handle a question without a straight answer – or a question he was afraid to answer." Kaito said finally. This time it was Minamino doing the glaring.

"I think I'll take that as a yes." Momoko gloated, grinning at Saemi. Saemi let out a snarl of wrath, threw down the cloth she'd been cleaning the window with, and stormed out. No one moved to stop her, and no one dared speak until her thundering footfalls had faded into the distance.

"So much for the cleaning." Sayo said matter-of-factly. Maya threw up her hands, a sign that she had reached the limit of her not-so-stellar-at-the-moment patience.

"Out! Out! Minamino and I will do the cleaning, as far away from each other as possible I might add, but _you people_ need to _leave_, now! Because if you don't, I swear I'm going to kill you!"

Surprisingly, Sayo, Kaito, Momoko, and Tasaka cleared out without any complaint, probably because they valued their lives. Minamino didn't see Maya again all that night – they agreed to divide the classrooms up evenly between them and she had left without checking up on him once her share was done. He was surprised to see Wakaba-sensei haunting the school gate when he packed up to go home.

"I heard about the whole thing from Momoko. Better they go home than stay here and get killed. Can't say I blame Maya, though. Putting Momoko in charge of this wasn't the most insightful decision I've made in my career, it seems. I just hope Sayo doesn't wake up dead tomorrow morning." Wakaba-sensei amended.

"I think the whole problem was that Saemi was there. Most of what Momoko said seemed to be directed at Saemi, not us." Shuichi told her.

_Although given Momoko's past association with me, I think it might have been worse if Saemi **wasn't** there._ He neglected to add that verbally, however.

"Well, at any rate, I'll walk you home and give your mother some kind of excuse for how late you are. Principal Daitojiri didn't call your mother about what happened, and Takahara-sensei was so worn out from trying to redirect his class's attention back to schoolwork that he forgot to do it." She told him.

"Thank you, Wakaba-sensei." He said gratefully. He guessed she might have been feeling a bit guilty for the events she'd set into motion that night. Then again, she looked a little too amused to be repentant.


	8. The Consequences of Paint

**Tango of Mortality**

**Chapter 8: The Consequences of Paint**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Ayashi no Ceres or any of the characters that appear therein.

"He's had his fangs pulled."

Momoko's critique bounced around in his head all night. It was so vexing to him because it implied his choice to curb his behavior and become an upstanding human citizen had been the wrong one. What irked him even more was that he had to admit, Momoko had a point. He couldn't for the life of him figure out who his tolerant behavior was actually helping. It certainly wasn't helping _him_. And more than that, it wasn't helping Maya. Which didn't make any sense, really. Logically speaking, his new mode of behavior should have been a benefit to Maya, considering all the grief his old behavior had caused her. However, things had not improved. He'd almost go so far as to say they'd somehow gotten worse.

In addition to the other strange things that had happened that day, his mother was overflowing with curiosity. That wasn't exactly unusual, as his mother tended to worry about him overmuch, but what was different this time was that it seemed like she wouldn't let herself question him. She responded to his unusually distracted and aloof air that night with self-satisfied smiles, as if everything were happening just as she wished it to, which needless to say confused him. He had other things to worry about, however, namely Saemi. That abrupt exit from the cleaning duty would not be near the end of it, not by a long shot. He suspected that Saemi had meant that as a declaration of all-out war on Maya (well, maybe on Momoko too, but Maya would be the first target). He didn't want anyone declaring war on Maya. Maya obviously didn't want anyone declaring war on her, in fact these days she didn't even want anyone to so much as speak to her. He knew this. But what he didn't know was what to do about it.

(The next day)

She should have expected it.

If she had been in any kind of shape other than half dead that day, she would have seen the warning signs. The one that should have clued her in was how docile Saemi and her fangirls were being, despite the fact that she knew Saemi had probably resolved herself not to go to sleep last night until the entire Romantic Soldier Fanclub had heard every detail of the events that occurred on that ill-fated cleaning expedition. She should have had an entire day of torment to look forward to, but instead things had been relatively quiet. Too quiet. About the only noteworthy disturbance of the peace was Takahara-sensei being even more vindictive and intolerant toward Minamino than she had seen him since she got here. She had a sinking feeling it had to do with the rumor flitting around school that Minamino liked her. She wondered how long it would be until Takahara-sensei got tired of tormenting Minamino and shifted the full brunt of his unpleasant personality onto her.

The fan club had had all day to set up their trap. You'd think after a lifetime of reading shoujo manga that all basically contained the same scenarios with different characters, she'd have anticipated the old "wait until after school then we get her" routine. Though it must have taken a monumental amount of willpower on their part, none of the Romantic Soldier Fanclub were on the scene when it happened. Ironically, Maya had been smart enough to just avoid wearing any kind of shoes besides her school issued slippers. If she'd have walked there in tennis shoes and tried to stash them in her locker, she knew they'd either have tacks hidden in them or be gone altogether by the end of the school day. Despite that precaution, she had been too wiped out at the end of the day to notice the transparent wire attached to the door of her cubby. As such, she had been totally unprepared for a bucket of thick, cold, pungent paint to come splashing down on her head and cover her from head to toe the second she wrenched her cubby open. She cringed to think what might have happened if she hadn't been looking down at her feet and instinctively squeezed her eyes shut when it happened. Getting this stuff in her eyes could have permanently damaged her vision (she was already practically blind in her left eye as it was). Which was probably what Saemi had been praying for.

Everyone else who'd been standing in the cubby room gasped. A few of them were protesting loudly because they'd gotten sprayed with some of the paint too.

"Ick! Look at it! It's _red_! And I think it's oil-based paint, too! This'll never come out! I'll have to buy a new uniform!" The complaining voice sounded familiar, though she'd never heard it raised above a modest volume like this before.

"Sayo?" She didn't try to say any more because she almost swallowed some of the paint that was still oozing down her face.

"Your cubby's not even a foot away from mine, which you obviously hadn't noticed. And before you even start, yes, I am a perceptive person and I do get into everything, but they had that bucket disguised pretty well. It had papier-mâché wrapped around it. I thought it was something for the school festival, since that's not too far away now. That's what I get for being too trusting." As she was talking, Sayo began wiping the paint off Maya's face with some cloth or something. Once her eyes and mouth were clear, Maya opened her eyes to see that Sayo had used her school jacket. The bloody red looked strange against the chrome silver color of their uniforms.

"Let's get you to the bathroom." Sayo began, but Maya caught the hand Sayo raised to put on her shoulder.

"No, not yet. I need to make someone pay for this, and I'll bet Saemi and her cult members are long gone by now. So I'm going to make _him_ pay for it, since it's basically his fault anyway. But I don't know how I'll manage to get close enough to him without him spotting me first, red paint and all." Maya wondered aloud. Sayo stopped for a moment, thinking, then her face lit up.

"I think Tasaka and the soccer team are just about to start practice right now."

(At the school gate)

Something strange was going on. He knew that because the day's schedule was not proceeding as it usually did. Every day at this time, Saemi and the other members of the Romantic Soldier Fanclub would all gather and bid him farewell at the school gate. But today, lo and behold, no club members. No nothing. By contrast, the school was unusually empty considering the time. So, any girl having any affiliation with the club was not _visible_, but did that necessarily mean they weren't _there_? What was Saemi up to? Was this the first offensive of the war? Shuichi's eyes darted around the school grounds, searching for any girls he knew to be part of the fan club. He was so intent on looking for female suspects that he didn't notice Tasaka and the whole soccer team heading for the school gate at a much earlier time than they normally would have left. He didn't notice them getting closer to him, as his eyes were focused on the school gate, wondering if it was safe to go through it or if some trap waited on the other side. Therefore, he was caught completely by surprise when someone hugged him tightly from behind. Judging by the height and the build, the person was most likely female, and…

Squish.

_Squish? What in the…_ He looked down to see that the arms encircling his waist were completely coated in a wet, red substance. Then he smelled paint.

"Wha…? Ugh! My uniform!" He immediately reached down and pushed the offending arms off. He then turned to face the prankster, fully expecting it to be a member of Saemi's clique (never Saemi herself; no way in hell would she coat herself in paint when she knew she had the means to get someone else to do it for her), and fully prepared to show his first overt display of lost temper since…ever. He stopped short when he saw who it was, eyes and mouth peeking out through holes in a mask of red paint.

"Maya?" He asked.

"Right first time." She said, grinning in a way that was in no way mirthful, then lunged at him.

"Maya, what are you doing?" He demanded feebly, holding up his arms to fend her off only to realize that would just get even more paint on him.

"Give me your school jacket, Minamino! Sayo _ruined_ hers so I wouldn't go blind or get poisoned by swallowing paint, so it's only fair you suffer the same fate so I can try to get this out of my hair before it dries and it's there forever!" Maya shrieked, clawing at the buttons holding the chrome silver jacket closed. It was already striped with red where Maya's arms had been. The soccer team could stand it no longer and burst out laughing in unison. Even Maya started laughing, though this hampered her attempts to steal Minamino's jacket somewhat. The only one who didn't laugh was Tasaka, who was glowering at Shuichi with nothing less than complete and total contempt.

"You know, if you were any kind of man, you'd take at least _some_ responsibility for this mess you're creating." Tasaka said as the laughter died down. Then they heard it. At some point Maya's laughter had degenerated into sobs. She couldn't hide her face in her hands because they were still covered in paint, so she balled them into fists at her sides. If the paint weren't oil-based, there would have been tear tracks. The soccer team exchanged uncomfortable glances amongst themselves, each daring the others to be the one to tackle this new problem.

"Here." Shuichi said, taking off his jacket and placing it over her head. Then he took her by the wrist and pulled her along with him through the school gate, leaving a stunned soccer team in his wake.

(A few moments later, elsewhere on the grounds)

"Yeah, Shiori-san. I think they're most likely on their way to your house, and they're covered in red paint. Just make sure you look surprised when you see them, though. That Shuichi doesn't miss a trick. But, I guess you knew that already. Okay. No problem. Bye." Momoko pushed the button of her decorated pink cell phone to terminate the call. She turned to Tasaka, giving him her signature weasel's grin. He rolled his eyes.

"You know, Momoko, if you keep this up one of these days something bad is gonna happen to you." He sighed, shaking his head.

"Aw, but I _like_ playing the informant!" Momoko pouted. Then she pursed her lips and regarded her cell phone thoughtfully. "Now, as for Saemi…."

"I want in."

They both turned to see Sayo, still wearing her paint-soiled uniform.

"I'm going to show that little no-account groupie what happens when she messes with her superiors."


	9. Announcement

**Tango of Mortality**

**Chapter 9: Announcement**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho, Ayashi no Ceres, or any of the characters that appear in either show.

**Author's Note:** Ototo-chan means "little brother" in Japanese.

They had to ride the bullet train there, which was embarrassing to say the least, and they had to stand up the whole way so as not to get wet paint on the seats. The whole thing was exhausting. Then they had to put up with being stared at as they walked through Minamino's neighborhood – _her_ neighborhood, too, actually – which wasn't that surprising but it still grated on her nerves.

"Dad's company deals in art supplies – dad's a former art student himself – so I'm sure he'll know what to do about this." Minamino reassured her as they drew closer to his house.

"Dad? Minamino, you're dad's been dead for…Oh, that's right. Shiori remarried." Maya recalled in a dreamy voice. The chemical smell of the paint was really starting to get to her. It didn't help that she'd been feeling fatigued before any of this even happened.

"Yeah, that's right. Dad's great, I'm glad mom found such a nice guy. I have a younger step-brother now, too. He's going to Meio now, like I did. His name's Shuichi, just like me, but we all call him Kokota." Minamino explained.

"Kokota? Is that like a wordplay on ototo-chan?" Maya asked as they stopped in front of his house. She was struck by the familiarity of the place. She would've expected them to have moved into a new house, but no.

"Mom wouldn't move." Minamino remarked, as if he'd read her mind. "I think it's because dad designed this house. Kazuyu-san was really understanding, though. He even sold the house he'd been living in with Kokota so he could move in with us. I admit, I'd do anything for mom, but I'm glad we didn't move. This place has so many memories attached to it. I'd have hated it if someone else had moved in."

"There's the cherry tree. Your dad had it moved here from Kyoto and planted in the front yard. It's really old, right?" Maya asked, peering at it. The branches were bare, now, but she remembered with sudden clarity what it looked like in spring, when the leaves were full of vibrant pink cherry blossoms.

"Yeah, about 200 years old, I think. I remember my mom used to tell me what a hard time they had transporting it here without killing it. Dad would've never been able to do it if he hadn't been a Partner in one of the most successful Architectural Firms in Tokyo. That's also how mom and I were able to live so well after he died. Mom still worked part-time a lot to pay for mundane expenses, though. She's been saving up for my college education, she says." Minamino's voice had taken on a thoughtful tone, and she could've sworn she heard what might have been regret mixed in there too. They walked up to the doorstep and he rang the doorbell.

"Coming!" An older woman's voice called from somewhere in the house. Maya was once again struck by the familiarity of that voice. This feeling she kept having…it was like she'd forgotten something very important and was only just now starting to remember. The door opened and a lovely older woman with long black hair and caramel-colored tan skin stood in front of them, smiling brightly. The smile faded and her eyes widened as she surveyed the scene in front of her.

"Shuichi, what on earth…?" Her eyes bugged out when she caught sight of Maya, who must have looked ten times worse than her son did.

"Um…there was an…accident. It's all my fault. I was working on something for the school festival, and I accidentally tipped over this bucket of paint. It fell right on her head. It's oil-based, too. I really think we're going to need dad's help on this." He explained, not making a move to step inside.

"Hm. He won't be home for another hour or so. Maybe we should start with the hose. I know it's oil-based, but it might help anyway." Shiori gestured that they should head over to the backyard. The next hour was spent unsuccessfully trying to wash the red paint off. At least the water was keeping it from drying on her skin. They were completely soaked to the bone by the time Shuichi's dad stepped out onto the lawn.

"Wow. You've really done a number on yourselves." He remarked. "Well, go ahead and take off your shoes. We'll go down to the basement."

They took off their shoes and socks and followed him. Maya remembered that the basement had once been a playroom, and she and Shuichi had played there often with the other neighborhood children when she was younger. She was surprised to see it had been turned into a small art studio.

"People usually wear throw-away clothes when they're working with oil-based paint, but there are those times when it gets on good clothing – or a school uniform." He winked at them and Maya couldn't help but smile. "There is a solution that makes the paint dissolve and wash off. Luckily most of it is on your uniform. Other than that it's just on your head, hands and a few smatterings on your legs. You should be able to just rub this on yourself and get under the shower. It'll wash off like regular paint after that."

He gave her a few tubules of clear stuff and she found herself being led to the bathroom by Shuichi.

"Wait. You're going to let me do that here?" She asked, scandalized by this for some reason.

"Well, of course. What are we supposed to do, send you all the way back to the dorm and make you do it there? You'd catch your death if we made you walk all the way back like that. It's not quite winter yet, but the temperature is starting to drop when the sun goes down. It's five o'clock now, and it won't be light out much longer. You'll probably stay for dinner too." Minamino said, smiling the whole time. He gently pushed her into the bathroom and closed the door. Dinner? She was invited to dinner? That was going to be a problem. She was going to have to eat every bite of what she was served, especially given the situation. She could plead illness, which was believable given the paint fumes she'd been breathing in for hours now, but still…it didn't feel right lying to Shiori. She took off her ruined uniform, rubbed it down with the solution, and placed it in the sink, which she had filled with water. Kazuyu-san had told her that as soon as most of the paint was off Shiori would try to launder it as best she could. Then she started to rub the solution in her hair, on her hands and face, and on her legs. It didn't smell nearly as strong as the paint had, and it was similar in texture to egg whites so it went on smoothly. She stepped under the shower and let the warm water sluice over her, vigorously running her hands through her hair. She felt the semi-hardened paint become wet again and run off her face. She opened her eyes and saw that the paint had disappeared from her hands and legs. She stayed under the water for a long while, uncertain if it would come out of hair as easily as it had skin. Finally, when her skin was so pruny she couldn't handle it any longer, she stepped out and used a towel to wipe the fog off the mirror. She was pleasantly surprised to see that her hair looked normal again and the red was gone from her skin. She put on a bathrobe and wrapped a towel around her head, and then got to work on her uniform. She drained the sink and run water over the uniform until most of the residue paint had washed off. At least you could see that it had been silver at one point, even if it was permeated with a red stain. She took her uniform in her arms and opened the bathroom door, stopping as she stepped out and looking hesitantly down the hallway.

"Are you done?" Shiori's voice came from a much closer vicinity that Maya would have expected and she jumped in surprise.

"Um…yes. What should I do now?" Maya asked, still rooted to the spot.

"Come in here and let me get a look at that uniform." Shiori instructed, and Maya saw a hand beckon to her from the door of a room that was a few feet away on the other side of the hall. She walked hesitantly over and peaked in, only to be pulled in by Shiori, who shut the door behind them. She then took the uniform from Maya and examined it.

"Looks like most of it came out, but we won't know for sure until I wash it. Anyway, we'd better find something for you to wear. Can't have you stuck in a bathrobe, now can we?" Shiori teased, walking over to the closet and opening it. She rifled around until she came up with a modest blue summer dress with a pattern of tiny white flowers.

"I _think_ this should fit you. It's better than nothing, I suppose." Then she turned to Maya with a twinkle in her eye. "Do you mind if I dry your hair?"

"What?" Maya asked. She'd forgotten how disarming and bewildering Shiori's presence could be. She was so pleasant she just swept you off your feet.

"Oh, I know, you're old enough to do it on your own, but I never get to play with anyone's hair except mine. Shuichi won't let me touch his. That's why I really do hope that…" Shiori stopped short, as if she'd been about to say something she shouldn't have, then looked expectantly at Maya.

"Um…alright, if you want." Maya said, wishing there was a hole somewhere in the room she could crawl into. Becoming this involved with Shuichi's family was the _exact opposite_ of what she'd planned! If only she'd been more alert and had dodged the paint in time…

"It's still short." Shiori commented as she worked on it with a brush and comb.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. It's easier to take care of that way. I mean, can you imagine what a nightmare it would've been if I'd been hit with that paint and I'd had _long_ hair?" They both laughed, then fell silent as Shiori started on her with the hair dryer. It only took about ten minutes to dry, causing Shiori to grumble that it ended too quickly.

"Well, I'd better go finish up with dinner. I've had Kokota watching over it for me while I was up here, but I'm not sure he could handle a culinary crisis should it rear its ugly head. Go ahead and put on that dress, and there's some slippers for you right by the door. Come right down once you're ready." Shiori instructed as she headed out the door, shutting it behind her. Maya stared numbly after her for an indeterminate amount of time before she finally put on the dress and slippers and headed downstairs. The stairs led to the dining room. The Kazuyus had a Western-style dining table with chairs and everything. She saw a young boy with short brown hair that was just a little darker than her own hair setting the table. That must be Kokota.

"Oh, hello." He said as he caught sight of her, stopping what he was doing.

"Hello. I'm sorry to put you out like this." She excused herself, bowing.

"Oh, that's alright. I heard about how Shuichi dumped paint on you." He said, a hint of disbelief in his voice. "I had to stay after school for debate club, so I didn't get here in time to see it."

"Well, he didn't exactly dump paint on me…but, he may as well have." Maya amended. Kokota shrugged and went back to setting the table. Maya moved toward the kitchen and peeked in.

"Ah, so you're fit to appear in front of civilized society again, I see. No more red war paint. Be a dear and help me put the dishes on the table would you?" Shiori called, gesturing to the serving plates. After the table was fully set, the family assembled in the dining room and sat down to eat.

"So, I think you two owe us an explanation as to how that whole situation with the paint actually happened." Kazuyu-san prompted. She almost choked on the tiny morsel of fish she'd been eating.

"This all happened because someone left a bucket of paint where they shouldn't have, and _I_ mistook it for an empty bucket." Minamino immediately took charge, for which she was grateful. "Someone had left it propped up above the students' shoe cubbies for some reason, and when I saw it up there I figured I should take it down and put it back with the cleaning supplies. Maya was standing next to me at the time, opening her cubby. Well, I started to take it down, but didn't expect the extra weight, and I realized it was going to fall. So I shoved it away from me…and straight onto Maya."

"That's weird. Why would someone leave a bucket of red paint in a place like that?" Kokota asked.

"I think this won't be the last incident like that we see in the coming weeks, actually. It's getting near the time for the school festival. People are always leaving potentially messy or dangerous stuff lying around in unexpected places when a school festival's on." Minamino continued, seemingly unruffled by the fact that he was telling a complete and total lie. At the mention of the school festival, both Shiori and Kazuyu-san launched off on countless stories they had of bizarre happenings during or before school festivals that they had experienced in their youth. It took up most of the dinner conversation. Maya was relieved. She didn't think she could muster anything light-hearted to talk about given her…unique situation. As they were about to get up to clear the table, Shiori tapped a chopstick against a wine glass, indicating she had something to say. The other diners fell silent, their full attention on Shiori.

"I have an announcement to make." Shiori said, sounding calm although Maya noticed she took a deep breath before she continued.

"I'm pregnant."

Silence followed for several moments.

"Wow, really?" Kokota asked, looking questioningly at his father, who nodded.

"That's wonderful, Mother." Shuichi said, although he sounded shaken. He sat silently for several moments, obviously deep in thought. Maya watched him, feeling a twinge of concern.

"I also have an announcement to make." Shuichi said, rising. The rest of the family fell silent. Maya's eyes widened. What, did he have cancer or something? She couldn't imagine what else he could be announcing that would engender the serious expression on his face.

"I know you've all wondered since I started Junior High. I know you've wracked your brains trying to figure out whether I had a girlfriend or not, and if I did have one, who she was. Well, you don't have to worry about it anymore. I have a girlfriend, and she's sitting right here at this table." He gestured at Maya. Rather than feeling happy, though, she immediately lapsed back into the mood she'd been in when he'd said her name in front of the whole class. In other words, she felt like throwing a chair at his head. But Shiori and Kazuyu-san were smiling and _clapping_, for god's sake, so that wasn't a viable option. It seemed the whole paint thing had actually caused them to develop a fondness for her.

"Well, I guess you had better walk her home, then." Shiori prompted, smiling almost from ear to ear. Her uniform had been washed and dried, and Shiori handed it to her at the door. "Don't worry about the dress, you can return it anytime. You can even keep it if you want, though I don't suppose you'd want that old thing. Good night."

She waited until they were safely on the bullet train before she unleashed her wrath on Minamino.

"What the _hell_ was that? How dare you do something like that without consulting me! That's not just going to go away, you know!"

"I know, but I think you'll agree with me if you hear me out." Minamino said, putting a hand up to silence her. "This is the best way to get even with the Romantic Soldier Fanclub. If I know Momoko, she's already heard from Tasaka about how I left with you the other day, and it'll be all over the school by tomorrow. I suggest we also find some way to let everyone know, unequivocally, that we are going out, and that it happened _because_ of the paint situation. That'll really drive Saemi insane to hear that her plan backfired that badly."

"Oh. I get it. A mutually beneficial lie." Maya said, realization dawning on her.

"Well…maybe." He continued before she could get on him about what he meant by maybe. "But I don't mean to stop there. I want that fanclub abolished for good, and if it means that I have to display some of the less…palatable aspects of myself, so be it, but I can't take it anymore. I want to be a normal student for once, and if to reach that goal I have to go from being adored to being hated, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make."

"If what I saw today is any indication, most of the boys in the school should be more than happy to help you with that, Minamino." She said, thinking back to how little prodding she and Sayo had had to do to get the soccer team to go along with their plans.

"Right. And remember, call me Shuichi from now on, not Minamino. I know Momoko will be more than happy to lend her assistance, although I'm reluctant to accept it. It's akin to making a deal with the devil." Shuichi said, recalling Momoko's behavior the day they'd stayed behind to clean the classrooms.

"I agree with you about Momoko, but we can't do without her. She seems like one of the only girls in the school who's inclined to defy Saemi." The bullet train stopped at their destination and they got off. Shuichi walked her to the dorms.

"Well, goodnight. I'll see you tomorrow. It's too bad you don't live in my neighborhood anymore, I could walk you to school." He said, watching as she made her way to the dorm entrance.

"Yeah. Goodnight." She disappeared inside the dorm building. Shuichi lingered for a few more moments, then turned and walked back the way they had come.


	10. The Resurgence of the Prank Wars

**Tango of Mortality**

**Chapter 10: The Resurgence of the Prank Wars**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Ayashi no Ceres. So there.

The members of the Romantic Soldier Fanclub had deeply regretted the escape they'd had to make yesterday. They hadn't been present to see their great enemy receive her just desserts. But what they had heard going around school about what happened _after_ Maya was covered in paint made them regret insisting on a hasty withdrawal even more. The girls were clustered together in groups based on rank as they milled around the school yard. They had all arrived early so as to use the space between the front gate and the school buildings as a meeting ground. Their mood was an odd mix of triumph and apprehension.

"It's confirmed. Maya was hit by the paint we set up for her." Saemi's right hand, a Second Year named Komei, informed. Saemi and her leading council of members were huddled in a tight group, with the other members hovering close to them.

"Well, that's great, but I didn't expect her to go after Minamino-kun like that. Or even if she did, I didn't expect him to walk her home after she smeared red paint all over him. I need to know what happened after that." Saemi was chewing on her lower lip, a sure sign that she was nervous. Saemi prided herself on her full lips, and this habit was damaging to them.

"We could ask Momoko. She claims she used to know him in grade school, so he might have…" The younger member who'd made the suggestion fell silent at the livid glower Saemi threw her way. Momoko's name was quickly becoming a taboo word amongst the club members since the night of the cleaning incident.

"I won't sink to going to Momoko for information. Maybe one of the boys could find out for us." Saemi wondered which boy they could con into doing this. Her own charms had long since lost their luster with the boys at Kokusai, as the word had gotten out that Saemi Hachiyoru only had eyes for Minamino.

"It's Maya! She's walking with Sayo! And Minamino-kun is coming this way from the opposite direction!" A look out who'd been stationed at the school gate called.

"Which one will get here first?" Saemi asked, eyes narrowing.

"Maya and Sayo." The look out answered. Saemi motioned for the clumps of girls to disperse into groups of threes and fours as if they were all just separate groups of friends conversing. She then indicated that they should clear a path.

Maya and Sayo walked through the school gate a few moments later, both wearing paint-stained uniforms. Maya's entire uniform had a noticeably red tinge to it, as did certain sections of Sayo's. Several of the onlookers snickered, causing both Maya and Sayo to glare at the assemblage of girls. Then Shuichi walked through the school gate.

"Good morning, Minamino-kun!" The girls squealed and started to converge on him. For the first time in his stay at either Meio or Kokusai, he coldly brushed them all off and gave no response. His eyes were fixed on the two figures walking together ahead of him.

"Maya-chan!" He called. The entire assemblage of club members gasped. At no point when he was at Meio or Kokusai had he called anyone by a pet name. The fact that he did so with Maya spoke volumes. Maya stopped and turned back, a surprised look on her face, as if she had expected this no more than anyone else. As Shuichi rushed to intercept her, the club members who were closest noticed something red in the hand that wasn't holding his school bag.

"Here, Maya-chan. This is for you, to celebrate our reunion. I would have brought you one on your first day here if I had known you'd transferred." He handed her a single red rose, which Maya accepted with some reluctance. His face and voice conveyed his usual gentleness, but it was tinged with an affection that the club members had never seen from him before. It was enough to melt their hearts and turn them green with envy all at once.

"Um…Thank you." Maya responded, then added with haste as if she'd almost forgotten something. "That's very sweet of you, Shuichi-kun."

"I'm sorry about what happened yesterday. I hope you won't be offended by the color of the rose because of it." Minamino continued. He gestured toward the stains on his own uniform by way of explanation.

"Huh? Oh, right, the paint was red. No, it doesn't offend me. I guess red is the color everyone prefers for roses." Maya said, looking from him to the rose. Anyone who was perceptive enough would have noticed that on Shuichi's end this appeared to be rehearsed, while Maya was behaving like a forgetful actor who had to be prompted before she could remember her lines. The fan club was so blown away by what they were seeing that they failed to notice these particulars, however.

"Shall we go inside?" Shuichi asked.

"Sure." Maya said, but seemed as surprised as everyone else when Shuichi gently grasped her by the wrist and pulled her inside with him. Sayo lingered outside to savor the dumbfounded expressions that were universal among the fan club members. She quickly ducked inside the building, however, when those faces started to turn sour.

"Sorry? He's _sorry_ for what happened? _He's_ sorry? Why is _he_ apologizing to that witch? _She's_ the one who got paint all over him! And what does he mean by "celebrate our reunion?" What the hell is going on?" Saemi practically screamed at no one in particular. She had sworn to herself that she would be the first and only girl to receive flowers from Shuichi Minamino. Maya had just destroyed that dream.

"It kind of seemed like they'd known each other before she came here." The same unfortunate girl who'd mentioned Momoko before tried feebly to answer Saemi's question. The death glare she received this time was even more terrible than the one before, and Komei made a mental note to strike the other girl's name off the club roster.

"This means war." Saemi snarled.

(Later, during lunch break, in the sports supplies shed)

"This means war." Shuichi explained calmly to Momoko. She was sitting across from him on one of the high jumps. She had been looking dubious when he said he wanted to meet her in a secluded place, but the second those words came out of his mouth her eyes lit up with eagerness.

"Ooh, I love the sound of that. So you're pissed they dumped paint on Maya and you wanna get back at 'em, huh?" Momoko could barely contain her enthusiasm.

"Yes, but we're going to have to plan this carefully. Punishing an entire club is not going to be an easy task." They were interrupted by a knock on the shed door. He and Momoko exchanged a glance and he went to open it. On the other side of the door he was confronted by Tasaka, red-faced and looking as if he'd run all the way there.

"Minamino…what…the hell…do you think you're doing…in a supply shed…alone…with _my_ girlfriend?" Tasaka grated out as he tried to catch his breath.

"Who told you that?" Minamino asked. He looked over Tasaka's shoulder and saw Sayo standing a few paces behind him. She gave him a little wave. "Oh."

"Dammit, Minamino, people make out in here, y'know. What was I supposed to think?" Tasaka grumbled once everything had been explained to him.

"Oh, gee, Tasaka, why don't you just tell them that _we_ make out in here, cause that's basically what you just did." Momoko sighed, throwing up her hands.

"So you want to destroy your own fanclub, huh? I was wondering when you were finally going to snap. The fact that it was something happening to Maya that made you do it has brought you up a few notches on the humanity scale, as I see it." Tasaka said, ignoring Momoko.

"So, Minamino, I assume you have some master plan to accomplish this?" Sayo prompted. They had all taken shelter in the supply shed now.

"I don't think Kaito would exactly be thrilled that you're in here alone with me, Sayo." Shuichi said, a subtle indication that she wasn't welcome here. He wasn't sure how much he trusted Sayo, which by default meant he didn't trust her with this.

"Oh, please. I told him about you giving the rose to Maya this morning. He's done worrying about you stealing me from him, not that that ever would have happened anyway." Sayo said, flipping her hair as if it were a physical dismissal of his comment.

"Don't worry, Minamino, she's okay. She got hit with the paint too, so she told me she wanted in on teaching Saemi a lesson." Momoko reassured him, then stopped as she realized the implications of what she'd said.

"So, you had plans to do something even if I had done nothing." Shuichi said, raising an eyebrow.

"Er…um…well, you see…" Momoko began. Shuichi had somehow managed to make her feel as if she'd done something wrong.

"You're a good friend, Momoko." Shuichi said, favoring her with a gorgeous smile. Momoko grinned back while Tasaka scowled warningly at Minamino to stop acting to damn charming around _his_ girl.

"Wait. If you're here, who's with Maya?" Shuichi asked, turning to look at Sayo, panic suddenly chilling him to the bone.

"I asked Kaito to keep an eye on her. I wouldn't worry anyway, though. Those fangirls aren't smart enough to formulate another plan that quick. It would take them at least a week to come up with something to top that stunt with the paint." Sayo reassured him.

"Oh. I suppose that's true. They could still torment her, though, but if Kaito's with her she should be all right." He sat back, visibly calmed. "Now, as to that next hit Saemi and the others are no doubt planning even as we speak. I want to catch them in the act."

"You mean get them in trouble?" Momoko asked.

"Not necessarily. If we could get them in trouble, so much the better, but if we could catch them in the act and then activate our own trap…" Shuichi watched as the light of comprehension went on in Momoko's eyes.

"The prank wars." Momoko said, satisfaction seeping from every pore.

"What?" Sayo asked, looking from her to Shuichi. "What does that mean?"

"Uh oh. This could get us expelled." Tasaka groaned, but there was a hint of excitement in his voice that betrayed his true feelings on the matter.

"Only if we do it on school grounds." Shuichi said.

"Do what? What are the prank wars?" Sayo asked, annoyance creeping into her normally neutral voice.

"It's something Maya and I used to take part in when we were kids. It would usually start out with me making her mad, then her setting up some elaborate trap to get back at me. In other words, a prank. Then I would do it to her, and she to me, and vice versa until someone admitted defeat. I had brains and creativity on my side. Maya had that in addition to every single kid in school as her ally. I think you can probably guess who admitted defeat most often." He gestured toward himself in case no one got the hint.

"So…you're going to declare a prank war on the Romantic Soldier Fanclub, and you'll do it by springing a trap on them right as they're about to play another dirty trick on Maya. Sounds like the funnest thing I've ever heard of." It was official. He could tell be the tone of her voice. Nothing was going to prevent Sayo being involved in this.

"Hey, wait a minute. You're going to make Maya go through something like the paint incident again? I don't think I like it." Tasaka said doubtfully.

"I don't plan on letting them go through with it, at least not all the way. This also means we'll have to have Maya under constant surveillance. Sayo, you live with her, so you're the best suited for that job." Shuichi looked questioningly at Sayo to see if she had any problem with that.

"It's not like she annoys the hell out of me or anything, so I should be able to handle it." Sayo said flippantly, shrugging her shoulders.

"Now, about the fanclub itself. We don't have any insiders, so finding out when they're going to make their move will be difficult." He looked to Momoko, figuring she would be the most able to solve this problem.

"Oh, don't you worry. I've got that covered. How d'ya think I found out about the paint thing so fast? I don't necessarily have an insider, but I do have someone who _knows_ an insider. Kazumi Jitachi, twin sister of Kazuko Jitachi, both First Years. Kazuko is part of the club, Kazumi isn't. Kazumi thinks her sister's too good to be part of such a bimbo club and would do anything to get Kazuko out of it. If that means the destruction of said club, fine by her. She'll be able to get us the goods." Momoko grinned.

"Tasaka, I take it I can count on the help of you and the soccer team should we need it?" Shuichi turned to the other boy.

"Help you destroy your own popularity? Hell yeah. Seriously, you have no idea how many of the guys have been _praying_ something like this would happen. It's no fun going to a school where all the girls are only interested in one guy." Tasaka said.

"We're on, then. Let's just hope we can do this as perfectly as I want it done."


	11. Lull before the Storm

**Tango of Mortality**

**Chapter 11: Lull before the Storm**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Ayashi no Ceres.

**Author's Note:** Sorry I took so long to update! I had trouble figuring out how to start it up again, but now I'm back on track!

Breep…..

Breep….

Breep….

_Ugh. Not again. When is he going to see the writing on the wall already?_

After the ringing stopped Maya picked up her cell phone. She must have been called five times already that Sunday, and she knew exactly who it had to be. The first one had been from her mom (who had sounded annoyingly hopeful at the news that she and Shuichi had entered into this weird pact), so there was no doubt as to who the other four had come from. She flipped it open. Sure enough, four messages. She punched the button to play them and pressed the phone to ear.

Message 1: "Hello, Maya-chan? It's me, Shuichi. You must still be asleep so I'll call back again later. I was hoping we could do something today."

_No. No way. If I recall, we entered into this deal to torture your fan club. So unless that has something to do with this Sunday meeting you're after, you'd better not start with me._

Message 2: "Maya-chan, it's 10:00 in the morning. Aren't you up yet? I'll call again if you don't call me back."

_That almost sounded like a threat. My fake boyfriend threatening to call me as impetus to hang out with him. Yep, sounds like my life alright._

Message 3: "Maya? Pick up the phone. …….. Maya! I know you're there. I'm your boyfriend now, you're not allowed to ignore me. I'll come over there if you don't pick up the next time I call."

_Yeah right, Shuichi. Fat chance. This is the **girls** dorm which means no boys allowed on the premises even if they are Kokusai students, on pain of expulsion for the boy and whatever girl invited him in, if said girl exists. And they pay extra attention on Sundays. Girls can go in, girls can go out, but under no circumstances can a girl come in with a boy. One thing I'm sure of is that you're not willing to get expelled just to come here and drag me out of bed. And what's this "I'm your boyfriend now, you're not allowed to ignore me" stuff? We're not **really** going out and you know it._

Message 4: "Maya, seriously, answer. Momoko called me and says she wants to meet and discuss our next move against Saemi."

_That's more like it._

Maya dialed the number to Shuichi's home phone. Oddly enough, he hadn't given her a cell phone number. She surmised he didn't even have a cell phone because the number would be too easy for those fan girls to gain access to. After a few rings, someone picked up.

"Maya, is that you?" Shuichi's voice asked immediately. She rolled her eyes.

"Desperate much, Minamino?" She asked. She suddenly heard someone laughing from the other end of the line, in the background as if from behind Minamino.

"You usually treat me like your secretary, Shuichi, but today you've been rushing to pick up the phone every time it rings!" Maya heard a voice that was obviously Shiori's say.

"I don't suppose you can blame me for being desperate, considering the fact that by the tone of your voice I'd have to guess you purposefully ignored my first three calls. And I told you, call me Shuichi from now on!" This was a first. Shuichi sounded really irritated. Then again, there was something familiar about that tone…

"So where does Momoko want to meet us?" Maya asked.

"That park that's near our old neighborhood. You know, the one we always used to play in." He said as if he expected her to know exactly what he was talking about. Maya tried to picture it but all she got were fuzzy images.

"You're going to have to give me directions." She said. There was a shocked pause at the other end.

"I'll just come and get you, then, so I can show you the way. We'll meet at the school gate." Shuichi sounded kind of shaken.

"Okay, I'll see you there." She said. She hung up the phone, feeling the shock she'd sensed in Shuichi's voice start to descend on her. She was starting to wonder why it was she remembered so little about the town she grew up in. If she had left when she was a little child it would have made sense, but she'd only been twelve when she moved away to Miyagi. That was only five years, so she shouldn't be having all this trouble remembering. And then there was Tasaka and Momoko. Despite the fact that those two acted as if they'd known her and Shuichi forever, Maya barely remembered them. Her memories of Shuichi were even more frustrating because they came in static bursts. They were either crystal clear or so foggy she couldn't make heads or tails of them, like her attempts to remember the park. Snapping out of her trance, she got up out of bed and started to get ready. Sayo, thank god, was not around to make any pithy comments about whatever, as she'd left to meet Kaito an hour ago. She washed her hair, brushed her teeth, and rifled through her closet for something to wear. She cringed as her eyes fell upon something that was all too familiar. It was a long pink skirt with a darker pink plaid pattern over it with matching tight pink shirt with purple lace trim on the edges, and a yellow jacket with fake fur collar that she'd always thought looked disconcertingly like a Golden Labrador Retriever's fur. This had been a favorite of hers when she'd been going out with…

_I'm wearing it._ She decided suddenly, shocked by her own vehemence. She pulled it out of the closet and got dressed. _How did this even get in my luggage? Must be Mom's doing. Oh well, she probably didn't know the significance of this outfit. The mere fact that it still fits is proof of how thin I am. I was fifteen the last time I wore this, if I recall._

She surveyed herself in Sayo's body length mirror. It immediately occurred to her exactly why this had been a favorite. She looked good. The shirt fell over her chest just so and the skirt hugged her slim legs, accentuating her slender build. Quite frankly, she looked too good for what she was doing today. With Shuichi. She felt an intense urge to change into something else. She certainly didn't want Shuichi to get the wrong idea. She looked at her clock. It had been almost an hour already. Who knows how long he'd already been waiting for her. She threw some things in her purse and headed out the door, sighing in exasperation at what seemed to be her one constant talent: messing up her own life. She nodded to the hawk-eyed warden as she left the dorm, who gave her a dubious once over. She cringed and wondered exactly how many people had heard the rumor that she and Minamino were dating. As she'd expected, she saw Minamino waiting for her as she approached the school gate. He was leaning against one of the concrete monuments on either side of the gate that displayed the school's name, seemingly staring off into space. He almost looked worried about something.

"Shuichi!" She called. He looked up in her direction and then stared at her for a good minute as she approached without returning her greeting.

"Hello, Maya-chan. You look very beautiful." He said finally once she had made her way over to him, taking one of her hands in his and smiling warmly. She blushed in spite of herself, and after she was done mentally cursing herself for it she reluctantly admitted to herself it would be hard for any girl not to blush when a guy like Shuichi was smiling just for her. Which was how he'd gotten stuck with that fan club of his, actually.

"Oh, spare me." She said in the most sarcastic voice she could muster, whapping him on the shoulder with her purse. "Just take me to this park of yours."

"Your wish is my command, fair one." He said, giving a mock bow.

"Keep this up and I might stop pitying you for having a fan club, Shuichi, because it is so obviously your own damn fault." She warned him, halfway meaning it. He just laughed and turned to go, leading her along by the hand he still held. When they got on the train he fell silent again. Noticing the hand that still held hers was slack, she pulled away. Shuichi snapped out of it and turned to look at her where she stood next to him holding on to one of the rails.

"No point in us holding hands when we're on the train, especially if we're trying to hold on to the rails at the same time. It's not safe." She said by way of explanation, feeling as if she'd done something wrong.

"Hm." He said noncommittally and went back to his broody reverie. He didn't speak to her again until they got to the park. When they got there and started walking around in it she was beset with that strange sense of déjà vu she'd experienced when she'd gone to Shuichi's house.

"Do you recognize the place?" Shuichi asked after a while.

"A little. I kind of remember coming here, but I can't remember any specific experiences. It's all just kind of…blurry." She said.

"I was afraid of that." She said, almost under his breath.

"What do you mean?" She asked, head turning sharply to look at him. He started guiltily and turned to meet her gaze.

"Um…nothing, just that it's too bad you don't remember. I remember every detail of our time together as kids." He said, quickly looking away. He sounded hurt, as if he was sad she didn't remember him as well as he remembered her. Come to think of it, she recalled that Saemi had mentioned something about how Minamino hadn't taken a girlfriend all through junior high and no one knowing why that was…

"So, when is Momoko going to get here?" She asked, desperate for something that would divert her from that particular train of thought.

_You are being a psycho, Maya. You are being crazy. You didn't get enough sleep last night. Or you got too much sleep last night. Anyway, you need to stop thinking about these things. Stop thinking like one of his obsessed fangirls – you're not even obsessed with him, not even close! Minamino has **not** been in love with you for five years, so stop freaking out. This is just a truce forged from a common enemy, and you have nothing to worry about._

She was so caught up in her attempts to eradicate her previous thought processes that she didn't notice how uncomfortable Shuichi started to look when she asked about Momoko. Then her cell phone rang. She and Shuichi both looked down at her purse.

"I wonder who that could be?" She mused, taking it out and answering it.

"Hi Maya, it's me, Momoko." The other girl said, sounding somewhat crestfallen.

"What's wrong Momoko? Won't you be able to make it?" Maya asked.

"Huh? Make it where?" Momoko asked, sounding genuinely puzzled. Maya's mind went completely blank for a moment as the implications of that sunk in. She then glared at Minamino, who shrank back, smiling sheepishly.

"To the park, where Minamino conned me into going with him because he said that _you_ were going to meet us there." Maya said in a chipper tone that did little to mask her anger.

"Wha…? Oh, I get it. Your first date together, huh? I wouldn't dream of interrupting you two, so I'll just tell you the gist of our problem right now. The thing is, you know our insider, Kazuko Jitachi? Well, she got herself kicked out of the club somehow, so we can forget about her. Anyway, we'll need to come up with a new strategy. I'll think of something and call you back. Enjoy the rest of your date!" The news that Maya had gone out with Shuichi seemed to have made Momoko's day, as she had switched back to her usual wickedly cheerful tone of voice. She hung up before Maya could say anything more. For an eternity, there was silence. Then Maya put her cell phone in her jacket pocket and turned to Minamino, who put his hands up in a defensive gesture.

"I'm sorry, really! I didn't mean to lie! I just wanted to see you, Maya-chan! Is that so wrong?" He asked, backing away as she started to descend on him with her purse raised threateningly in one hand.

"Why you…" She growled, then froze as she saw a black shape drop down from the large tree just behind Shuichi.

"Fox, has leading hostile humans to my resting places become part of your 'daily routine' as you call it?"


	12. Hiei

**Tango of Mortality**

**Chapter 12: Hiei**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Ayashi no Ceres.

Despite the fact that both of them had expressed an interest in one day truly testing each other in combat, it had yet to happen. Kurama surmised that, for Hiei's part, this was because the Jaganshi was only interested in fighting Kurama seriously in his full demon form. Which he had sworn never to don again. As for himself, Kurama would prefer to avoid such a battle because he was uncertain of who would triumph: him or Hiei. He was more ruthless than Hiei when it came down to it, but a lot of that ruthlessness had fallen by the wayside after he'd accepted his life as a human. An acceptance he'd come to in part because of the young girl who was standing frozen in place a few steps in front of him, staring in astonishment at the short figure in black who'd just landed behind him. Worse yet, Kurama could swear he thought he saw recognition beginning to form in her brandy-colored eyes (eyes that were, ironically enough, a more subdued shade of Hiei's own eye color). And that spelled trouble, trouble that could potentially ruin his relationship with Maya.

Kurama could think of only one other instance besides this one when he had genuinely wanted to _kill_ Hiei: the night they first met. And that had also involved Maya.

"Er…Hiei. How good of you to…drop in." Kurama greeted him through gritted teeth, not taking his eyes off Maya. She was too busy staring at their uninvited guest to notice him watching her. There was something spellbound about Maya's gaze now, as if she felt looking at Hiei was the solution to some great enigma.

"There's something really, _really_ familiar about him. You know him, right Shuichi? So I guess that means I must have known him too. We used to play with him, right?" Maya sounded triumphant, as if this were the first one hundred percent familiar thing she'd come across since she started coming back to visit her nascent neighborhood.

"Oh, no. No, Maya. He only moved here after you moved away." He was quick to correct her, but regretted it when he saw her triumphant expression disappear and the arm that had been brandishing the purse drop limply to her side. She took in a deep breath, held it for a moment, then let it out in a long, tremulous sigh. She'd closed her eyes, but he thought he saw them tearing up.

"Maya, are you alright? Did he upset you?" Kurama asked, breaking the distance between them with a few strides and putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I…I'm alright, it's just for some reason this not being able to remember anything is really frustrating me." She forced herself to calm down, clenching and unclenching her fists several times and taking deep breaths. Hiei jumped down from the tree root he was balanced on and moved closer to them, peering at Maya. It could be that he was recognizing her just as she had recognized him. Kurama gave him a look that said 'speak and you die' then turned back to Maya.

"What did Momoko say?" He asked, hoping that changing the subject would dispel her frustration.

"Oh, that. Momoko said that our insider isn't an insider anymore. You know, that Kazuko girl? She got herself kicked out of the club. Probably fallout from Saemi's bad temper lately, not to mention her all around mean disposition." Maya informed. He sighed. First Hiei shows up, then a wrinkle in his plan appears. Wait a minute. Hiei…

"Do you want me to take you back to the dorm?" He asked. He would have preferred to spend the rest of the day with her and take her to dinner, but Hiei's appearance had put the fork to that idea. He glanced back at Hiei and concentrated on the Jaganshi's forehead as hard as he could.

_You. My house. At sundown. And if you don't show up, I'm going to hunt you down and feed you to the Janenju._

Hiei raised his eyebrows in surprise at the genuine anger he sensed in the message directed at his covered third eye, but mercifully he didn't see fit to answer with anything more than his usual "Hn."

"I think I had better get back, I'm starting to feel kind of fatigued." Maya said, and he was surprised by how much of that fatigue showed in her voice. Had she really found the mundane activities they'd done that day so exhausting? Or perhaps it was her mind's attempts to unearth what was best left buried that had drained her energy. He took her hand and started toward the park's exit.

"Oh." She said, stopping suddenly and turning back.

"Goodbye, Hiei! It was nice to meet you. Can't say I've met any other boy besides you who chose jumping out of a tree as a way to introduce himself." She called, waving at Hiei with the hand Kurama wasn't holding. Hiei looked surprised for a moment, then made that face he always did when he was feeling embarrassed or put on the spot (or whenever Yukina was in the vicinity). An instant later, he disappeared. Kurama mused that the Jaganshi really didn't know how to respond to kindness or even common courtesy. Which would make the plan he was formulating rather difficult…

"Say, Shuichi?" Maya asked once they'd gotten back to the dorm.

"Yes?" He asked warily.

"I almost forgot about it what with all the excitement, but Hiei called you a fox. What did he mean by that?" Maya asked, giving him a curious look.

"Oh. Um. Well. It's because…" He was stuck for a moment, then gestured to the long red hair that was flowing down his shoulders. "It's because my hair looks like a fox's tail!"

"Oh! You're right, it does!" Maya laughed and waved goodbye as she walked inside the dorm. As he turned to leave, he caught the warden's eye. He and the sour-faced warden engaged in a half-hearted staredown until the warden looked away, his sour expression dissolving into a smirk as if to say, 'Hey kid, don't worry about it, I'm on your side. I was just messing with you.'

(Later at sundown, in the Hatanaka-Minamino household)

"So what was that all about, Kurama? Usually you're grateful for any kind of interruption when those human girls are chasing after you." Hiei was perched on the windowsill of Kurama's room. He had come at sundown as had been requested of him, half expecting Kurama to challenge him to a fight or just attack him the moment he appeared. No such thing had happened. Kurama had simply opened the window for him and gone back to his homework.

"Yes, usually, but not this time. Not with that girl." Kurama said, not looking up from his homework.

"She seemed familiar somehow. And she acted as if she'd seen me before." Hiei said after a long silence. Kurama sighed and set his pencil down, turning his chair away from his desk so that he faced Hiei.

"So you did recognize her. You remember that night we first met? You know, when you almost cut her in half?" Kurama asked. Surprise flitted across Hiei's features then was replaced by a look of rumination.

"Oh. Right. There was a human girl there, too." Hiei said finally, having dredged up what he had long ago tossed away as an insignificant detail. "And that was why you went with me to fight that demon Eight-Hands, the one who was rumored to have eaten an Ice Maiden. Because he took the girl."

"Yes, Hiei, and that girl in the park was the very same girl. Which was why her seeing you was not a good thing." Kurama said. A confused look replaced the thoughtful one on Hiei's face.

"But didn't she leave? She left on that train thing and I didn't see her in the area anymore. I remember because you were sullen and dangerous to cross for at least a few months after that. What's she doing back here?" Hiei pointed out. Kurama sighed. It had been around the time Hiei found Goki and they had begun planning the heist of the Treasures of Darkness that Maya's mother divorced, remarried, and took her daughter back to her birthplace of Miyagi. Maya's departure had been the final impetus for using the Forlorn Hope to save his mother from the breast cancer that was slowly eating away at her. Now that Maya was moving on to a new life and wouldn't need him around anymore, there was really no reason for him not to die. It had been a dark and lonely time for him.

"She left, and in truth she still isn't back. She just goes to the same school that I do." Kurama explained.

"Hn. You called me here on pain of death to tell me that?" Hiei prompted after another long silence.

"Actually, that's only part of it. Yes, I am mad that you decided to jump right in front of a girl whose memory of meeting you I erased – jump out of a _tree_ no less – because that could potentially cause me a LOT pf problems. Especially were she to actually remember everything. So, as payment in kind for that injury, I want you to do something for me." Kurama said in a light tone that nonetheless brooked no argument.

"Do something for you? In Human World? Is this something that could potentially get me back on Spirit World's Most Wanted List?" Hiei asked dubiously.

"Not if you can avoid killing anyone, which should be fairly easy since this job involves not being seen, period." Kurama said, amused. He was curious as to whether Hiei was wary of getting on Koenma's bad side again or whether he secretly longed to do it. Probably somewhere in between. "I want you to spy on someone. You know, gather intelligence on my enemy's plans."

"Enemy? What enemy?" Hiei asked, intrigued that there was actually something in Human World that Kurama would classify as a threat.

"Those girls that are always following me around." Kurama said. Hiei gave him a blank stare.

"I thought they worshiped you, fox. And considering how vain you obviously are, I thought you enjoyed that." Hiei said finally, clearly baffled. Hiei, doubtless, could find no reason for Kurama to have put up with those girls for as long as he did if he wasn't getting anything out of it. Hiei, obviously, had never been exposed to a high school community, and Kurama was also beginning to realize why no bandit gang had ever seen fit to keep Hiei around for very long. Or rather, Hiei hadn't seen fit to keep _them_ around for very long.

"Yes, and I don't want them to worship me. Not now that they're getting in the way of me getting something I want." Kurama explained.

"I see. And you can't just kill them all because _you'd_ be on Spirit World's Most Wanted List. So what sort of information do you need?" Hiei asked. Kurama was surprised. He hadn't in a million years expected Hiei to be this cooperative. It occurred to him that Hiei might be trying to do anything to keep him from asking exactly what he was doing hanging around in Human World in the first place. Must have been some kind of incident between him and Mukuro…but he knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth, even though any other time he would've loved to needle Hiei.

"Oh, you'll find out tomorrow. I need you to come with me to that park again to meet someone. I even got you some clothes to wear." Kurama suppressed a laugh at the sharp look Hiei gave him as he leapt deftly out of the window and into the night. Despite the uncooperative front he was putting on, Hiei had essentially agreed to help Kurama with this, and Hiei was a demon of his word.

(The next day, at the park)

Hiei was looking sullen. In fact, he was looking like he was going to bolt any minute. It had to be the clothes. Kurama had absolutely refused to let Hiei wear his usual black ninja outfit. They were going to meet Momoko, after all, and that girl would not stop until she knew why he was dressed like that. In addition to everything else about him. At least with him dressed somewhat normally Momoko would have less of an incentive to snoop. He hoped. Hiei was dressed in a tan leather jacket (for some reason he had insisted on going shirtless under that even though it was starting to get colder outside), black velvet pants and matching black leather boots, with his Tear Gem around his neck. It was one of the best articles of clothing Kurama had made since his own battle outfits, if he did say so himself. Hiei, however, almost seemed embarrassed by the change of clothes. Kurama recalled that fabric from Demon World was so durable that most demons only had one outfit that they wore continuously. Even he had done that, once upon a time…

"Shuichi!" He heard Momoko call, and looked up to see her walking leisurely toward them. She stopped when she caught sight of Hiei. "Who's that?"

"He's the one who's going to get us our information about Saemi's next move. His name is Hiei." Kurama said.

"Well, fine, but that's not exactly answering my question. Who is he? Where's he from? And, geez, Minamino, how long have you been hiding him from me?" She was looking at Hiei with stars in her eyes. He realized then that Hiei was probably just Momoko's type. Great. That was going to make things…interesting.

"His full name is…is Hiei Jaganshi. He lived around this neighborhood but I never met him until after Maya moved away. We never saw him before that because, well, he didn't want to be seen. He's been a hardcore delinquent since he was about, oh, five years old." Kurama explained, watching Momoko's adoring expression with growing concern.

"Cool." Momoko said fervently.

"And I've been hiding him from you because I knew Tasaka would kill me if he thought I was orchestrating a relationship between you and another boy." He added with emphasis, and Momoko instantly deflated.

"Oh, right." She said as if she'd just now remembered that she already had a boyfriend.

"He'll keep an eye on Saemi and her clique, as he doesn't go to school because, like I said, hardcore delinquent. He'll be an excellent spy." Shuichi continued. A second later Momoko's cell phone beeped to indicate she was being sent a text message.

"That," She said, sighing, "will be Tasaka. I swear, he has some kind of psychic power that lets him sense when I'm with another guy. Gawd. Well, I guess I'll be going since we've had our little secret meeting. I take it you'll call me once you've got us some information?"

He nodded and Momoko turned to go. Before she did, though, she turned back around and winked at Hiei, giving him a charming little wave goodbye. They stared after her, Hiei with an ambiguous expression that anyone nonetheless could see as having something to do with extreme discomfort.

"Kurama, who the hell was that?" Hiei asked after a moment, sounding borderline horrified.

"That was Momoko, an indispensable ally to our cause. And from the tone of your voice, I think from now on you'll probably have a better understanding of what I've been through with that thrice-cursed fan club."

**Author's Note:** MOMOKO LIKES HIEI! MWA HA HA HA HA! I'm so evil.


	13. Rise of the Gemini

**Tango of Mortality**

**Chapter 13: Rise of the Gemini**

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Ayashi no Ceres, and it should be obvious I'm not making any money off this. So sue me, I _dare_ you.

Author's Note: FINALLY! After _months_ of floating in the ennui of writer's block, going through a financial crisis of epic proportions, and generally just feeling totally burned out, I FINALLY POSTED ANOTHER CHAPTER! Now if I can just keep it going like this I hopefully won't go MIA again. Sorry to everyone who's been waiting impatiently for me to bust out of my depression and write again.

It started when they both turned 15, to be exact. They started seeing shadows out of the corners of their eyes – no, more than seeing, they _sensed_ them. When you just saw something it was possible to keep yourself safely deluded. After all, the eyes could deceive. But when you _sensed_ something, you felt it with your _whole body_. You felt it with senses that didn't have a name in any human language. Sensing these shadows was bad enough. But seeing them, full on, was far worse than sensing. Because when you actually saw something you only just sensed before, then you had no choice but to admit it was real. And that was what Kazuko and Kazumi had had to do when they saw their first demon. At that time they hadn't had the common sense to be worried about what consequences these new powers they were developing could possibly have. All they'd had at that time was a vague understanding was this was something they should keep a secret between themselves. So when a strange person started poking around their Junior High after classes let out, and they both agreed he gave off some weird aura, they decided to come to the school after dark and investigate. They never dreamed that the mystery man, the wolf-in-sheep's clothing, had been attracted to that school specifically by _their_ spiritual resonance. They never dreamed that man wasn't a man at all, and would suddenly tear away his human skin to reveal something hideous and grotesque underneath. They never dreamed that that night would be the first time they would ever use their powers to kill someone. Or rather, something.

It wasn't the last. After a while they realized they were a sought after item. This went on until they were just past 17 years old, them being stalked by demons. They had never told their parents about it, and had even gone to great pains to keep it a secret from them. If they found out, their parents might decide to call some organization to "help" them. Like Mikage International and Project C. Thank god that never happened. Then they'd have been shut away in a lab somewhere. Because that's what had come out about Mikage International and Project C: they had been kidnapping, bribing, and buying young girls from all over the world in order to research the C-Genome. The C-Genome apparently gave people weird powers, and was particularly prevalent in women. Mikage International had even dumped some weird vector into Japan's water supply that supposedly caused the C-Genome to manifest in people. As a result, thousands were dead as a result of their body rejecting the vector. Kazuko and Kazumi surmised that the only reason they weren't dead was because their bodies hadn't rejected the vector. Or maybe they were meant to be this way all along. Who knew?

And really, who _could_ know? Because about a month after Japan's News stations had been railing about the horrible scandal this would cause for the country, about how badly it would affect Japan's relations with the rest of the world, they had suddenly taken it all back and were back to claiming there really had been a virus. That the story about Mikage International and Project C, and that even more damning rumor about how a shady organization called Ragnarok, comprised of the leaders of several powerful countries from Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, had been funding it? Why, it had all been something dreamed up by an ambitious reporter, who had of course been prosecuted though his identity was never released to the public. The whole thing was quickly forgotten in lieu of other major world events that affected Japan, like America's faltering economy and the Irap War. The implications of this quite frankly scared the crap out of Kazumi and Kazuko, because it could mean so many different things. Who had been responsible for the cover up? The Japanese Government seemed a likely candidate, as the things that had occurred as a result of Mikage International's attempt to play God on a genetic scale were so sensitive they could potentially cause World War III. That wasn't so bad, really, although it lacked any kind of real justice. But then there was the possibility that Project C and its vision of a stronger, better humanity free of disease (at the cost of countless human lives and any sense of proper ethics and morality) had been so appealing that the Japanese Government (or other governments elsewhere) had decided to continue it in secret. And then there was the possibility that Mikage International had somehow survived with their money and power intact by bribing or threatening people in the top tiers of government (it didn't help that several Mikage family members were apparently _in_ the top tiers of government). Either way, it meant Project C was still in full swing. Which also meant that Kazuko and Kazumi were still potential lab rats.

Kazuko and Kazumi were starting to get the feeling they were going to spend their whole lives "in hiding" so to speak. Always looking over their shoulders, always watching their backs, always trying to do anything that would put them beneath the notice of whatever or whoever would have reason to notice them. It was a lifestyle that was making the two of them more than a little paranoid. Which was why they saw the sudden lack of hostility from the demons as something bad as opposed to being something good. As a result of interrogating a particularly weak demon they encountered once, Kazuko and Kazumi had learned about the barrier that kept the demons sealed in their own dimension. The most powerful ones, anyway; the lure of human meat was too tempting to keep the smaller ones from slipping through, even though it meant potential run-ins with people like Kazuko and Kazumi. And whoever that Yusuke Urameshi boogeyman was. Supposedly he was human. They had doubts as to whether he was real, if only because he'd certainly never once ridden in on a white horse to help _them_. And this sudden lack of demon activity was worrying to them, because once again they were totally ignorant as to _why_ it was happening. And they were getting really sick of not knowing anything for certain. 

That was why they found Shuichi Minamino's sudden appearance when they started high school so disturbing. They'd honed their spiritual senses to the point that they could clearly sense he was a demon of some kind, even with all the sophisticated cloaking he put on himself to hide it. That was also what clued them in to the fact that he had to be the most powerful demon they'd yet encountered. Those sort of encrypted spiritual defenses were something totally beyond the flimsy disguises they'd seen on demons so far. What was worse, they couldn't for the life of them discern his motives. He didn't seem interested in eating humans. He'd even managed to worm his way into a totally normal human family (Kazuko and Kazumi both agreed they didn't even want to know what manner of brainwashing or hypnotism he'd used to accomplish _that_). The fact that he appeared almost exactly at the same time that demon activity dropped to an all time low was something Kazuko and Kazumi found very, _very_ suspicious. It wouldn't have surprised them at all if he were the one behind it. And so they had taken to spying on him. It was in the pursuit of this goal they had also found out their opponent was also incredibly perceptive. He almost caught them at it more times than they could count, and if he did catch them, they counted themselves as dead meat. So they decided to find some way to stalk in an official capacity, one that would hopefully put them above his retribution. That was when they snapped out of their demon-hunting, spiritually-haunted, and generally self-possessed existence and took stock of the rest of the student body. And that was when they discovered the Romantic Soldier Fanclub. It was perfect. They both agreed that one would engage in the club, while the other would stay on the sidelines as backup so the one in the club would have someone watching her back. Neither of them had counted on Saemi and her psychotic episode ruining the whole thing.

"I _tried_ to act as stupid as possible, I really did!" Kazuko whined from where she sat on her side of the room. Kazuko and Kazumi both shared a room, divided perfectly in two with an equal amount of space on each side. Each side had its own small bed and desks and its own decorations. Kazuko was the athletic one, fond of putting up posters of female Olympic Champions and littering her side with exercise equipment. Like her identical twin sister, she was small, but was lithe and full of wiry strength while her sister was thin and willowy. Kazumi was the brains of their duo, a mathematics and sciences virtuoso. Her walls were plastered with posters of planets, star charts, and famous scientists. She also had a taste for the occult, which was heartily shared by Kazuko. Kazumi specified in research and reading to her occult ministrations, while Kazuko preferred a more hands-on approach, directly confronting strange things in order to learn about them. This mix of abilities and specialties were in part what had kept them alive this long. 

"I think you mean "normal", Kazuko." Kazumi sighed from where she sat at her desk with several books open at once. Kazumi could have jumped past both Sayo and Maya as far as grades went, but she purposefully kept herself at average. Genius level intelligence was definitely the sort of thing that had attracted Mikage agents. God only knew what it would attract now. 

"Um, no, when I'm talking about these girls, I mean _stupid_." Kazuko said forcefully, slipping down to the floor as noiselessly as a cat, then effortlessly standing on her hands. She, like her sister, was also exceptional. Her body's stamina and flexibility was almost beyond human; she probably could have been an Olympic hopeful herself by now if not for the same need not to attract attention that caused Kazumi to hold herself back. 

"Well, fine, but what are we supposed to do now? Minamino has suddenly altered his behavior, and from what I've heard from students who went to Meio with him, it's a drastic change. Apparently he never showed any interest in girls before. Then this Maya shows up and suddenly he's Mister Romantic. Worse, from what I'm sensing, Maya is sick in some way. And she has spiritual power, but it's _really_ repressed, to the point where I almost didn't pick up on it. I'm definitely thinking Minamino's got some ulterior motive, but I haven't the foggiest as to what it could be. Then that guy in black shows up that day he took her to the park, and he's giving off some _serious_ demon mojo, the worst we've felt since Minamino. An unknown motive, a potential victim, and now an ally. And we've got no way to effectively spy on him since Saemi decided to ban you from the club for daring to mention Momoko's name." Kazumi sighed in an exasperated tone. Kazuko's eyes lit up.

"Hey, I know, let's form a liaison with Momoko, act like we want to knock Saemi down a few pegs! From what we've seen she's been having more and more contact with Minamino since Maya came into the equation." Kazuko said eagerly, looking to her sister for approval.

"It's a good idea. But first, we should get a bead on that guy in black. Find out where he resides when he's not with Minamino. We don't want him just running around with no clue where he is or what he's doing while we're trying to formulate a plan. But the question is, how to lure him out?" Kazumi wondered, chewing thoughtfully on a pen.

"Why don't we keep an eye on the Romantic Soldier Fanclub? You said you overheard that conversation between Momoko, Tasaka, and Sayo the day of the paint incident. If the Romantic Soldier Fanclub is _their_ enemy, it stands to reason they're Minamino's as well, especially after what they did to Maya." Kazuko suggested. Kazumi's muscles tensed where she sat at her desk, and her eyes widened. Her teeth clenched ever tighter on the pen. She turned to her sister with a fearful expression on her face, drawing the pen out of her mouth and letting it slip through her fingers.

"My god, that's right! Those girls have no idea what they're dealing with! If they cross Minamino, their lives could be in danger! They may be mean-spirited and a bunch of vapid idiots, but that doesn't necessarily mean they deserve to die!" Kazumi uttered breathlessly, rising from her seat.

"So that's our plan of action, then. And I happen to know when and where their next little meeting is. It's to decide what sort of prank to pull on Maya during the School Festival, and fittingly enoug it's at the school itself after hours. We can stake it out and see if the Little Man in Black shows up." Kazuko said in a self-satisfied tone, already flexing her muscles at the prospect of a fight.

"Not the best plan in existence, but at least it's something. We already know trying to spy on Minamino's house is somewhere between turning ourselves in and committing suicide, so I guess this is the next best thing. I don't really relish the prospect of getting in a fight with this guy in black, though. From what little we've seen of him, he's not just quick, he's powerful too." Kazumi murmured thoughtfully, beginning to pace around the room.

"Oh, really? Well, I _am_ looking forward to it." Kazuko said from where she still stood on her hands, a spark of wildness lighting her eyes up. Kazumi cringed. She knew that look; she was going to have a hard time reigning Kazuko in. In one quick, fluid motion Kazuko flipped herself into a sitting position on her bed. "Sounds like a challenge. And it's been a while since I had anything to take my many frustrations out on."

"Hey, don't go looking for trouble. This is just reconnaissance." Kazumi warned her.

"Well, yeah. But this guy in black, I'm not sure why I think this, but he doesn't seem like the type who'd be easy to sneak up on. And he also doesn't seem the type to just let people spy on him without getting in their faces." Kazuko said lightly. She had picked up some dumbbells and was doing lifts as if none of this worried her in the slightest. 

"Great. And your instincts about the enemy's temperament are usually right, too. I guess that means we'll be breaking out our whole arsenal for this, mundane and supernatural. We'd better tell our parents we've gone off someplace for a few evenings instead of just sneaking out like we usually do. We could get pretty badly roughed up this time, and we don't want them seeing us like that if we do." Kazumi said. Kazuko paused in her weightlifting a moment to look pointedly at her sister.

"Don't freak out so much, sis. We always get more answers by confronting and subduing than we do just watching." Kazuko said reassuring, watching her sister pace about nervously.

"That's assuming we can subdue him once he's been confronted." Kazumi murmured.

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that." Kazuko said wickedly, a glint of prophecy shining in her eye. This was an ability they both shared, hints of the future to come. Kazuko sensed it in terms of combatants. Kazumi sensed it in terms of people and their emotions. "Something tells me this guy has some reason not to do anything too drastic, you know, kind of like us. He won't do anything to jeopardize that, and I think killing us definitely would. This time, at least, it looks like we've got the edge."

"About time. I'm sick of having these powers and yet still feeling like I'm totally helpless to decide my own fate. Maybe you're right, maybe it _is_ time to throw caution to the wind and take the bull by the horns for once. We're running out of things to lose anyway, our lives are being totally ruined by all these endless precautions we keep taking to hide ourselves from…whatever the hell we need to hide from. It's like we haven't been ourselves for _years_ now. Just, like…these fake _versions_ of ourselves." Kazumi said vehemently, stopping to stand in the middle of the room. She looked up at the huge poster of the Gemini, her and her sister's Zodiac Sign. "Looks like it's time to take some risks, Kazuko. I hope we won't end up regretting it."

For a moment Kazuko just looked at her sister, her face totally serious and almost sad. Then she looked up at the Gemini, too, and gave a wry smile.

"Well, you won't see _me_ regretting it." 


	14. The Nymphs and the Magpie

**Tango of Mortality**

**Chapter 14: The Nymphs and the Magpie**

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Ayashi no Ceres. Kazumi and Kazuko are my creations, however.

It was just supposed to be reconnaissance. He was just supposed to go to Kurama's school after hours and spy on some human girls. Normal, harmless human girls. There wasn't supposed to be any fighting involved, in fact Kurama had threatened him with bodily harm if even a single drop of human blood was spilt. So it was understandably problematic for Hiei when two hostile, undeniably human spirit presences suddenly winked into existence on either side of him from his vantage point in the trees. Then he was treated to the very unpleasant experience of two tazers being jammed into his ribs. Not that he knew they were tazers; all he knew was they hurt and made both sides of his body go numb. Somewhere in the back of his mind Hiei wondered if this was how Yusuke felt when he fought the thunderbird demon, Suzaku. Then a palm slammed into his back _very_ hard and, with no small amount of horror and disbelief, he felt himself start to topple out of the tree. Hiei. Falling out of a _tree_. Hiei, who made a habit of _sleeping_ in them. The shock was wearing off now, to be replaced with anger. He flipped around in the air in order to land on his feet, but the enemy clocked his intention and he saw one of them whiz by him in midair to clock him on back of the head with another palm hit. That put him right out of balance. It also made him land flat on his face. It was also due to this embarrassing turn of the tide that Hiei became aware that his opponents were somehow capable of levitation. Never a good thing. He pictured Sensui and his wing-like growths of Sacred Energy, floating peacefully through the sky of Demon Realm. He also pictured how Sensui had handed all their asses to them in an impossibly short amount of time, despite fighting two A-Class demons and a human who could summon a dimension-splitting sword, despite being human himself, and despite being terminally ill the whole time. Hiei cringed. Were these humans able to use Sacred Energy as well? Hiei's calculations were cut short when not one but two figures landed simultaneously on his back just as he was about to lift himself up. At any rate, he knew they were fast, fast enough to be able to compete with him. There was something highly abnormal about that.

"Okay, Magpie. We don't want to do anything we can't take back, or that would push you over the edge, so it's best if you start talking. What's your connection to Shuichi Minamino, and why are you spying on those girls?" The figure standing squarely on his back hissed. A girl. It was a girl. Hiei resolved himself to do something very, very painful to the fox the next time he saw him. Kurama hadn't said anything about _this_. He was finally starting to understand what Kurama found so intolerable about this cult of humans that followed him incessantly. Especially if it meant getting roughed up by these two freaks of nature, who were pulling off Sensui-level feats of speed and spirit ability. But, even so. Even despite how furious he was. Killing them was out of the question. No matter what the circumstances, two dead human girls would get him back on Spirit World's Most Wanted List. And what with relations between Spirit World and Demon World being so chummy these days, he couldn't just run off to the demon plane to escape the consequences. Not with Mukuro there. And since this involved Kurama, he'd doubtless be looking at trouble from Yomi too, in the form of annoying meddling. Hiei willed himself, with monumental effort, not to think about how utterly unlike him this hesitation would have been some years ago. Instead, he focused on imagining what Mukuro would do to him if he ruined the peace between Spirit World and Demon World (and thereby embarrassing her as her former second-in-command). Just getting another hole punched through his stomach would probably be the least of his worries. And he doubted she'd use her gadgets to heal him this time.

"I'm a…a friend of his." The word friend was difficult for him to grate out. A lie, he reassured himself. Just a lie to get them away from him so he could avoid killing them. "He asked me to spy on them."

"You haven't told us why." The girl holding his legs reminded him threateningly. This presented a problem. If they were with the club of girls, he'd be giving away Kurama's plans. Kurama would not appreciate that.

"I don't know." He said flatly. Another tazer shot to the back. He winced.

"Ha! I don't think so! You're _way_ too cunning and strong to just be some lackey of Minamino's, there's no way you'd enter into an alliance without him telling you all the details. We've fought your kind before, you know, we're not stupid. So you better start talking unless you want us to start getting more…sophisticated with our methods of interrogation." The one with her knees planted directly between his shoulder blades snapped. Hiei noticed that they'd been calling him Minamino this whole time, not Kurama. Did that mean they didn't know he wasn't human? Either way, he needed to find some way out of this, some way that would leave him free and clear of these two without getting any of their blood on his sword. If he just ran away, he was sure they had the means and motivation to follow, and he'd long ago gotten sick of being hunted. Then something popped in Hiei's head. "Everybody screams. The question is, what will you say?" It was Shigure, the day he'd given Hiei the operation to implant his Jagan eye. Then it hit him. He didn't have to tell them _everything_, just enough to satisfy them. They'd already stated they didn't want to take this too far…

"I can only tell you any details if…" He jerked his head in what he thought was the direction of the school. "If you swear not to tell any of _them_."

There was a silence. Hiei got the feeling they were communicating telepathically, but he couldn't take his white headband off to open his Jagan eye so he could tell for sure.

"Okay, deal. We can't really tell them what's going on anyway, for certain…reasons. But know we're keeping an eye on you and if you try to hurt any of them, you'll have to go through us. What we've managed to do to you tonight ought to tell you that won't be easy. And one more thing. We won't tell those girls Minamino's spying on them if _you_ don't tell Minamino we're spying on _him_. If you breathe a word of what happened tonight to him – and believe you me, we have ways of knowing – then the deal's off." The girl on his back said rapidly, apparently not at all comfortable with this deal she was making.

"Alright. It's a deal. Now get off me." Hiei grumbled. There was a moment's hesitation, then they both suddenly lifted off of him. He was on his feet instantly and leaping a safer distance of a few feet away, turning himself around to face them as he did. What he saw was puzzling. They were undeniably human, but they looked like they could have been creatures from Spirit World. They were levitating in mid air side by side giving off a sizable aura of purple-colored energy, their long hair was tinged a deep, luxuriant purple and was pulsating all around them as if a strong but controlled wind were blowing, and their eyes glowed an eerie, vibrant gold. It was official; he and probably Kurama too were in some serious trouble if they made an enemy out of these two.

"Ku…Minamino wants me to spy on those girls to find out what they plan to do to that girl Maya during the School Festival thing." Hiei said, watching the two girls carefully. He resisted the urge to uncover his Jagan eye. He really didn't think revealing any more of his abilities to them was a good idea at this point, especially given the all-too-likely possibility they had a way to disable or, worse, permanently damage it. The two girls exchanged a perplexed look.

"Why?" They both asked at once.

"Because he wants to set up a counter-measure to hit the girls with so they'll hopefully never bother him or her again." Hiei said. Now they looked even more confused. Then their faces turned suspicious.

"Why the hell does he want to do that?" The one on the left demanded. He got the feeling that was the one that had been planted on his back. She seemed the more confrontational of the two.

"Yeah, what does he get out of it? And why's he so interested in Maya Hirobe?" The one on the right asked directly after her counterpart.

"He knew Maya Hirobe when they were younger. He's protective of her. He wants to get closer to her, but those other girls are getting in his way. He doesn't like it when things get in his way." Hiei said.

"What exactly does he want with Maya?" The one on the right asked.

"I don't know that. I don't really understand his motivations." Hiei said, shrugging. It was the truth, and the two girls knew it. They exchanged an exasperated look. Apparently these weren't the answers they'd expected. 

"Fine. I guess that's all you've got for us. So we'll be leaving." The one on the right said, and the two of them floated up into the air and out of his range of vision. It had grown dark out, so it was unlikely they'd be seen. If it had been broad daylight, Hiei imagined they'd have had to find some other way home. Remembering his spying duties, he quickly removed his headband and opened his Jagan eye, looking towards the school. Judging from the thoughts he read, they were still trying to decide on a course of action. Suddenly something occurred to Hiei. This was quite possibly the first time in his relationship with Kurama that he knew about something, and the fox didn't. Usually it was the other way around, with the fox trying (often unsuccessfully and, truth be told, half-heartedly) to hide things from him. Hiei donned a self-superior smirk that Kurama would have found very familiar had he been there. Hiei didn't mind being Kurama's spy so much now. He had something over on him. He was playing both sides. 


End file.
